Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up a Disney Princess in a Dungeon?
by vkg313
Summary: Follow the adventures of Krishna Khanna in Orario and how he interacts with both Danmachi and Disney Characters. Rare updates;Alternate Universe;Not Harem.
1. Chapter 1 - Transmigration Bus

Updated (10/22/19) - Changed the direction of the story, and MC's abilities.

I apologize. First chapter is somewhat of an info dump, and a general idea of how I decided the MC's abilities. I wanted to include the thought process.

I really need a Beta Reader.

 **Chapter 1 – Transmigration Bus (Version 1.02)**

I awoke to a white room.

"You died, Kid. It was like 'BAM!' You got hit by a bus." I was hearing a voice in my mind.

"What? I died?"

"Yup. I didn't expect that at all. Your death was pretty unusual."

I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was aggressive, so I had already expected to die anyways in a month or so. I had already made my peace with it. "Did I commit suicide? How did my parents take it?"

"Nope. It was the transmigration bus. Unexpected, really. No one ever sees it coming. Not even me. And I can see everything coming. Cause of death was noted to be a hit and run in your world. Your parents grieved when they found your body. You had a very nice funeral."

"Who are you?"

"God."

"Oh. Cool." I guess I should have expected that.

"Yup. Full disclosure—all of the Gods of the Multiverse are watching what is going to happen on this bus."

"What? Why?"

"Obviously, because you're going to be a great source of amusement in the future."

"Oh crap."

"Yup."

I was silent for a minute. "So now what?"

"Now for the fun part. Since you're on the Transmigration Bus, you get to go to a different world!"

"Can I return to my own world?"

"Nope! It's not fun that way. Also, I don't control the rules of the Transmigration Bus. I only control things in this universe."

"So what kind of world am I going to?"

"I don't know. It's your pick."

"I can choose?" That was both surprising and interesting.

"Of course! This is like winning the lottery!"

"Cool! So what worlds can I choose?"

"There's just about anything you would like! You can choose any story world like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson and the Olympians. You can go to any anime world like Naruto or One Piece. You can even go to any game world like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Final Fantasy, or Assassin's Creed. You could even be a part of one of those Xianxia Novels that you love so much! Hell, you might even choose to be a part of the Marvel or DC universe."

"Woah…" That is a lot of choices. God apparently pointed out a majority of the ones I had always wished I could be a part of.

"I'd choose wisely if I were you. Some of those worlds are extremely dangerous, hopeless worlds. Would you really want to live in those worlds?"

He was right. I could only handle a certain amount of danger. I wasn't a super talented MC like in all of the stories and games.

I thought through all of my options for a while, but I couldn't decide on where I wanted to go.

Apparently God could sense my troubles. "There's also two other options. First, you allow the transmigration bus to choose for you. It'll choose the world most suited to you, with the potential of leading you towards a great life. Of course, in return, you must accomplish missions for the bus in that world, or you will die."

"That doesn't sound pleasant."

"It depends on your point of view. Is the best world in the multiverse worth doing these tasks? Also, are you willing to do anything the bus asks of you in that world?"

"How many missions would it send me on? Are there any rewards for accomplishing these tasks?"

"Unlimited number of missions. The chosen world is your reward. There are no additional rewards for completing tasks."

"That's not good, but I guess maybe I wouldn't mind if the bus was giving me objectives to save the world."

"Unfortunately, that's not how it works. The requests are generally random and chaotic. The missions are whatever it feels would be interesting for all of the Multiverse Gods to watch, whether for good or evil."

"So what you're saying is that one day it could ask me to save a city, and the next day it could ask me to destroy it?"

"Yes. Essentially similar in concept. Almost no one selects this option once they know that."

"Yeah, that option's a no. What's the last option?"

"You could choose the random draw function, and a random world will be chosen for you."

"So it could be a really crappy world?"

"That's right. This option is rare too and only chosen slightly more than the other one, but in exchange, you can choose a couple of 'cheats'. You can grant yourself a couple of abilities, which fit the world's theme, within reason, to give yourself a fighting chance in that world. Of course, it could be an easier world to live in, and you would still get cheats, however they would be scaled down accordingly. It's just the luck of the draw."

"Hmm. So, I have three actions I can take right now. I can choose my world, and be sent there with no strings attached. I can allow the bus to send me to a world that would be great for me, but become a system's bitch. Or I can choose a random draw, and try to set myself up for success in that world."

I thought about it for a while. Time had no meaning where we were so I could take all the time I wanted. I had two real options. One was choosing the world myself, and the other was to be thrown into a random world with various possible benefits that I could choose for myself.

The major problem I was having was which world to choose. I feel like it would be awesome to be on a Pirate Ship with Luffy, and party with those guys, but who knows where I would actually end up in that world, or whether I'd be able to keep up. I was thinking about the Naruto World, but I don't feel I would be able to make a difference among the main characters, and having to kill people for money in the future sounds depressing. Bleach is a bit too creepy in real life. I don't want to live a horror story.

The Harry Potter world seems fun, but I don't want to do something so basic. The Pokémon world sounds like a really fun world, but maybe it might be a bit too vanilla. Sure, I could choose a Pokémon world that was dark and gritty, but that would take away the whole Pokémon charm, which would defeat the purpose. The Dragon Age and Mass Effect series were great stories, but I'd never actually _willingly_ want to be a part of such hopeless worlds. I'm not insane.

The DC and Marvel Universes would be cool, if I could choose my origin. A Xianxia world would be cool too, but I'm not sure if I could take that cutthroat world without any advantages. I'd need to be born into that world and have all my memories wiped, to be able to fully adapt to that world. The Dragon ball universe is out for the same reason. Those people are crazy fighting maniacs. I wouldn't fit in.

I could keep going about all of the other worlds that I've imagined myself being a part of. But if you have to go into those worlds for real, you have to evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses.

On the other hand, I couldn't stop thinking about cheats. If chosen correctly, I'd be able to protect myself regardless of the world I fall into. Also, a leg up might be more important than choosing the world.

"I'll do the random draw."

"How exciting! I can't wait to see where you go! I'm getting messages from everyone! They are all excited about this!"

All of a sudden, the screen appeared flashing words so quickly that I wasn't able to read anything.

"Pull the lever whenever you're ready, and it will stop at that one. You are lucky that the Transmigration Bus is kind. It will only choose worlds that you are capable of understanding. Worlds that exist in more or less than three dimensions will not be included."

"Uh huh…" I didn't even know that was an option.

I took a deep breath and pulled the lever.

On the screen, the words stopped at Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka*.

"Not a bad world. Relatively peaceful. Game mechanics and growth make things easier."

That's what I remember too. "Why is there an asterisk next to the world?"

"It means that it's an alternate universe version of that universe. There will be some differences from the main story and world. You'll find out the details eventually."

"Okay…so that's totally not cryptic and ominous. So what's the next step?"

"Next, you get to choose your race, because that is an option. That will affect your starting point."

"What's the strongest race?"

"Each has their strong points. Any race can become strong with falna, so it doesn't really matter."

"What race has the longest lifespan?"

"None. In the original world, elves had the longest lifespan, but in this universe, they are all about the same. The stronger you become, the longer you live."

"Then you should just make me human. I don't want to be questioned about the culture of another race, especially since I won't know the answer."

"Whatever you want. Next, do you wish to be born into that world, or would you like to directly transmigrate?"

Damn, this was a hard one. I'm not sure I can endure another childhood. I just can't. And new parents? I don't think so. Mine were the best. They did everything humanly possible to keep me alive.

"I'll transmigrate. Same age—18 years old."

"Understood. Here is a copy of your current falna, or status."

My status appeared in the air.

 **Krishna Khanna**

Level 1

 **Basic Abilities**

Strength I0

Endurance I0

Dexterity I0

Agility I0

Magic I0

 **Developmental Abilities:** N/A

 **Magic** : N/A

 **Skills** : N/A

"The only thing you are able to do is affect the last two categories, magic and skills. You are unable to affect your actual falna as that requires experiences that you don't have. You have 3 slots for magic and 5 slots for skills. Be aware that depending on what you ask for, you may not be able to fill up all of the slots. Think carefully on how you wish to proceed."

I thought about it for a while. Of course, when I said, "a while", I meant a day or two. I was able to come up with some good ideas.

"First, I want a skill that can automatically update my status without needing a god to do it."

"Oh, that's interesting. Why's that?"

"In case I get stuck somewhere, or spend a long time in a dungeon, I would like to be able to continuously get stronger without going back."

"Not a bad idea. Okay, what's next? List off everything you want and I'll give you your options."

"I want a limit break skill that will allow me to break successive stat barriers into the SS and SSS like Bell Cranel could do. It should also allow me to obtain 2 Developmental abilities per level up, and allow me to have more than 3 magic spells." If I am going to go into the dungeon, I can't fall behind Bell too much in terms of abilities. I also plan to join the Hestia Family, as apparently, joining another family is too hard and Hestia will accept just about anyone.

"Wow, that one was both well thought out, and greedy. Next?"

"I'd also like an inventory with an auto-loot function. Oh, I would also like a meditation skill that can help me recover my magic and improve it at the same time like in the gamer. Hell, if I could make that skill improve all of my basic abilities, then that would be even better. I can't think of any other skills."

"What about magic?"

"I would like to be able to have the Summon Elemental ability from the gamer that Han Ji-Han uses. I'd like a teleportation skill that can take to me to any floor of the dungeon that I've already been to. I'd also like a Spell for ultimate defense."

"That is a lot of cheat abilities. Unfortunately, you are unable to have all of them exactly as you wanted based on the world you will be going to. If you want all of them, their abilities will be reduced significantly. This is what that list of abilities would look like if you took all of them."

 **Magic:**

Summon Elemental (10 minute casting time, one elemental at a time, immense power drain, Activated at Level 4)

Teleportation (1 use every week, Personal use only, escape the dungeon only)

Absolute Protection (20 minute casting period, effect lasts 15 seconds)

 **Skills:**

Limit Break (Can break through S-Rank)

Inventory (2x2 ft.)

Auto-loot (magic stones only)

Automatic Falna Update (once per year)

Mediation (Recover mind power slightly faster)

These abilities all sucked. "Those don't really seem like cheats at all…"

God was amused. "Even if they aren't exactly what you wanted, each one of those abilities are all something all adventurers would love to have. The summons can be used as a distraction. Teleportation out of a dungeon is an amazing survival ability. Absolute protection would be extremely useful in a group battle.

Limit break allows people to get stronger. An inventory of even a small size is useful for carrying essential items such as food, water, potions, and loots. Auto-loot saves a bunch of time. Automatically updating your falna is useful for people in large families who rarely get to see their gods. Mediation allows mages to be able to use more magic faster."

[Note: I am going to call them families, not familia, so that I don't get annoyed by word check]

"I know what you're saying, but it's not what I wanted." God made a point, but if I choose these, then I would have a weak number of abilities all geared towards survival, rather than success in the dungeon. I wanted to succeed.

"I understand. You will have to remove abilities to improve the others. Perhaps you will need to add restrictions to some abilities. To make them work."

I went back to the drawing board. I had to choose one thing first that was absolutely necessary, which was Limit Break. Being able to break through the S-rankings to SS and SSS were important to becoming stronger. I also wanted to be able to choose double the developmental abilities. That was extremely important. I can let go of having more than 3 magic spells.

The Auto Updating of the Falna is also extremely important. As you get further into the dungeon, the more days you spend there. It would help a lot to be able to improve while there, even if it was once a week. Also, if I have to leave my family, my status will still keep updating. I'm keeping this one.

I can remove the meditation ability, as a watered down version isn't as useful, and I can raise my attributes continuously in the dungeon.

Now that I think about it, the inventory and auto-loot functions are great but too flashy. They would attract a serious amount of attention, and people would want me to become their supporters. I'll have to come back to that one, but it seems unlikely to happen.

In terms of the magic skills, I want all three of them, but they aren't as useful as I was hoping. I'm removing absolute protection because its casting time is way too long, and lasts for a really short time. It's not worth it.

"If I remove both the meditation ability and the Absolute protection ability, is that enough to improve the limit break to have 2 developmental abilities per level up?"

"No. It is enough to make your inventory 50 x50 feet though."

Damn. What else can I take off? Tsk. I guess there's no helping it.

"Take off the Inventory and Auto-loot."

"Done. That is more than enough for a second developmental ability per level up."

"Great, can you show me what I have now?" An updated screen appeared up in front of me again.

 **Magic:**

Summon Elemental (10 minute casting time, one elemental at a time, Immense Constant Mind power drain, Activated at Level 4)

Teleportation (1 use every 3 Days, Personal use only, escape the dungeon only)

 **Skills:**

Limit Break (Can break through to S-Rank, Two Developmental abilities per level up)

Automatic Falna Update (once per week)

Damn. I took off 4 abilities to get double the developmental abilities. The inventory and auto-loot would have been amazing for carrying capacity of loot and supplies. It'll be a pain without it.

Now that limit break is complete, I need to pick another skill to center my skills around. I want the Automatic Falna update, but even if I don't center on it, it isn't the end of the world. If anything, I want something I can use for combat. I guess the next step is centering around summon elemental.

"How bad is an immense mind power requirement?"

"Hmm. I shouldn't tell you, but I suppose it doesn't really matter. It means at level 4 with a magic stat at 999, you'll be able to use a single elemental for about 30 seconds."

"What? Damn! I wouldn't be able to use any magic till level 4, which would mean no magic gains at previous levels. That would make my magic weaker than normal. Okay, take off Teleportation. How much does Summon elemental improve?"

"5 minute casting time, multiple elementals at a time if you have the mind power to support them, immense constant mind power drain, with it being usable starting at level 3."

Dammit. This still isn't usable right away. I may need to give up even more. I can't give up any of the others. Those are too important. I have no other choice. I have to go all out.

"I give up any future use of my two other magic spell slots. I give up all future magic abilities. What can that get me?"

"That…let me see. Instant cast, multiple elementals (if you have the necessary power to control them), large constant mind power drain, and activated at level 2."

"What? How is this still not enough? This is bullshit!"

"It's not crazy. Elementals are beings with absolute control over their elements. You are asking for an insanely powerful army to fight on your behalf in a dungeon. It's also a world breaker ability. Even if you gave up all future skill slots, it still wouldn't be enough to bring it down to be usable to level one. The large mind power drain would only allow you to use the skill for a few minutes at S rank for level two anyways."

Damn damn damn damn! What can I do? Are there any solutions? Think, think, think! In this way, a few hours passed. I'm glad God was patient with me. Finally, a thought occurred to me. Wait…does it have to be elementals?

"Can I summon stuff other than elementals?"

"Of course."

"What about Pokémon?" Pokémon would be interesting and strong and usable for all occasions.

"Instant cast, multiple Pokémon, large constant mind power drain, and activated at level 1."

"What? Okay, what about Marvel heroes summons?"

"Instant cast, multiple heroes, immense constant mind power drain, and activated at level 1."

"What? That's worse than Pokémon! Why is there still an immense mind power drain?"

"Because they are both strong groups and their themes don't fit into your world. They would attract far more attention than normal. Elementals fit the fantasy theme of the world, otherwise they would be even more expensive."

God, this was so frustrating. I wish I could somehow get a version of this skill that had a lower magic requirement. At this point, I am willing to give up on summoning altogether and take up a simpler magic spell. Maybe take the inventory back with auto-loot, and a swordsmanship skill. But I came up with another idea. Something I knew that the bus would probably enjoy.

"What if we gambled on my summon type with a random draw. Would that make it possible to decrease the magic power of whatever I'm summoning from immense mind power requirement to a low mind power requirement?"

God communicated with the bus. "The bus is greatly intrigued and excited by your idea. He will allow it if whatever you summon is scaled by your magic power. For example, you might get the ability to summon Demon Gods, but if you're a level 1 with a magic stat of H101, your summon will be just as weak as your magic power."

"Then what's the point of having summons if they are just as weak as me?"

"Take or leave it." God was stoic.

The bus was amenable to bargaining, so I came up with a counter offer that would work to my favor. "I'll accept that, _if_ you allow 3 things."

"State your terms."

"First, I expect loyalty no matter what. I don't want to end up in a situation where I get summons that won't listen or cooperate with me."

I got a feeling of discontentment. God laughed. "The bus was really hoping you wouldn't notice that he could allow the possibility of disloyal summons. That is, of course, against the spirit of your original request, so once you noticed the loophole, the bus has no choice but to agree to that. All options for summons that won't be loyal to you have been removed from the draw. Just so you know, when you summoned those elementals, they too would have had free will, and could have chosen to harm or help you."

I sweated. Dodged a bullet there apparently. "The second thing I want is that death isn't permanent for my summons. It just sends them back for a specified amount of time, and then they can be summoned for use again. No loss in memories if they are intelligent."

"That was going to happen anyways. Agreed. Time it takes to bring them back after they are gone depends on how strong your summons are. The stronger they are, the longer it takes. Memories are maintained. State your last one."

This one was what I really wanted, and the main benefit. "If my summons are going to be weak, then any fighting they do should be able to improve my stats as well. If they take damage, that should improve my endurance. If they use their power, agility, dexterity or magic, it should improve mine in those categories as well. Their experiences in the dungeon should be able to be added to my own falna."

Essentially, even if I don't fight, they can improve my falna by fighting for me. Of course, I plan on fighting too, because otherwise, I'd get killed while in the dungeon. I don't want to be the weak link.

"The Transmigration Bus states that it'll allow it, but only because your requests will change what is available in the random draw. It will balance out in the end. Whatever you get, whether if it ends up being the ability to summon dragons or slimes, Jedi or Hutts, teletubbies or Dora the Explorer, Blue's clues or Sponge Bob Square Pants, Mario World goombas or Sonic the Hedgehog…whatever it is, you have to live with it."

I hate random draws. I feel like I'm going to regret this. Once I agree, I can't change my status. Is this chance worth it? I'm not sure. Is it worth giving up on an inventory and auto-loot, and potential weapon using skills? The only thing I really know about the series is that it's lonely in the dungeon. I'm not saying that you should try to be stupid and actually pick up girls in a dungeon, but having comrades is necessary to stave off insanity.

I know it's almost illogical to go through with the draw, instead of just choosing a bunch of survival abilities, but I'd rather be good at something, than mediocre at everything.

And then it hit me all of a sudden. I didn't even realize that I had gone into my own world.

Why was I being an idiot? I could just get companions the normal way, by making friends in real life and connecting with my family. Summons aren't true companions at the end of the day. They are forced to be loyal and obey commands. They didn't get to choose whether they want to follow you or not, so you'll never be sure if they are true friends or not.

Half of the abilities I had chosen were geared towards surviving along. I asked for a summon skill to have beings forced to be my companions and fight on my behalf, an inventory and auto-loot function so that I wouldn't need a supporter, and automatically updating Falna skill so that I wouldn't even need my God. Despite knowing that there would be a wonderful god if I joined the Hestia family along with reliable companions, I still was choosing that direction.

It turned out, the unreliable one was me all along. "I'd like to withdraw my request for a draw."

"Fine." I could practically hear God pouting. "That's too bad. The bus thought it would have been really amusing to see what kind of summons you would have gotten."

"I'm sure it would have been amusing for you all", I replied back dryly. "I'm going back to the drawing board. Clear the list completely." God reverted my falna back to the beginning when everything was clear.

I need to rethink my overall strategy. I would no longer ask for any skills that replaced people. That took away my summon skill, the Falna Skill, auto-loot and inventory. Teleportation is unnecessary since that would be ditching the rest of my team. Technically, it can be used to call for help, but help probably wouldn't reach in time for the dungeon anyways. An absolute protection spell that has a long cast time and low working time generally isn't useful, and something more useful can probably be chosen.

I'll keep my limit break skill, but I needed to think of something else that would be useful. I didn't know how to fight or any real useful skill. "I guess being able to learn fast would be great…"

"That can be added to your status."

"Really? How?" I was just thinking out loud. I never heard of any skill that made people learn faster from that story.

"You can receive the Developmental ability Insight. Not only will your learning ability increase, but you will also have bouts of enlightenment that can rapidly increase your skills."

"That sounds…amazing! That's even better than I thought it would be. I don't know what else I should add in…"

"Since everyone is getting impatient, I'll make a suggestion. You have just enough so that you can have 3 developmental abilities with each level up." I guess that Limit Break was out then. I suppose that was okay.

"Let's go with that then. I guess we are done then."

 **Krishna Khanna**

Level 1

 **Basic Abilities**

Strength I0

Endurance I0

Dexterity I0

Agility I0

Magic I0

 **Developmental Abilities:** Insight (I)

 **Magic** : N/A

 **Skills:** Developmental Genius (Three Developmental abilities per level up; _Locked and hidden until level up_ )

"That's excellent then. Your origin story will be a human that lived with his family in a town called Talvin, until they passed away from a monster attack. You decided to pursue your fortune in Orario and join a family to pursue whatever goals you want. Your first day in Orario will be the same day that Bell Cranel meets Ais Wallenstein in the dungeon for the first time. As that is when the novel originally starts. Is that okay? If you wish it, we can send you at some other time of your choosing."

They were surprisingly accommodating about the timing.

"Honestly, I would like to start like a year earlier, but then it's highly likely that Bell wouldn't get his Liaris Freese skill. So I guess it's fine."

"Alright. I believe we talked about almost everything. When you get your falna, it will be blank. After you go into the dungeon for the first time, you will obtain your Insight Developmental ability. Lastly, when you level up, you will receive the Developmental Genius Skill. That's everything. You will be sent on your way in 30 seconds. Thank you for participating, and enjoy your stay in the next world."

"Thanks for helping me out and being patient with me. I really appreciate it. I'm glad I got this world. Doesn't seem too bad, among everything I could have gotten."

"Don't be too sure. Who knows how that'll work for you?"

"Are you saying there is more to this than meets the eye?" When God hints at something, you pay attention.

God laughed. "Anything that looks simple, usually has a lot more to it. It just isn't as apparent."

"Wait! What should I—" I was cut off as I was transported to another dimension.

Meanwhile, after I left…

"Hey Transmigration Bus, is it okay for him to be given that world? You even nudged the random draw a little to change the original choice. Yes, I know it'll be more amusing than Final Fantasy 7. Okay, whatever. Just be glad I decided to go along with your plan and didn't tell Krishna. He would have been pissed. After all, I think it was his dream to go to Midgar, fight with Cloud, and use materia. Anyways, I'm leaving to go watch the spectacle. Those changes you made to the danmachi world are pretty interesting. I hope it's a good show!"


	2. Chapter 2 - Orario

I won't be using any of the Japanese honorifics. If that bothers anyone, I'm sorry in advance.

 **Chapter 2 – First Day in Orario**

One moment, I was in the room. The next moment, I was in a city, surrounded by people of all shapes and sizes. There were people of all kinds of races around, which was a bit of a cultural shock. There were humans, elves, dwarves, Beast-people, and other races I didn't recognize. Almost all the buildings around me were built with white stone. The city looked surprisingly clean. I wonder how they managed that. I was all a lot to take in. Then, my new memories of this world hit me.

Once the headache was over, I had a rudimentary understanding of the world and a backstory in this world as well. Apparently, I skipped over living my life here, but I did actually have a family here in this world. They passed away in a monster attack and then I decided to come here to gain strength instead of being a weakling that couldn't protect his family forever. The point of all of this is that my family actually existed, and if you asked any of the residents of Talvin who I am, they would be able to tell you. The Transmigration Bus was really serious about integrating me into this world.

I needed a plan. I couldn't just stand here forever, regardless of all the weirdness and shock. I was starting to get strange looks and people were looking at me like I was some sort of stupid villager, which technically I was according to my backstory. Still, there was no need to go out of my way to perpetuate the stereotype.

Okay, step one was to join a god's family. According to what I remember from the books, nobody was looking for an untrained person to join their family. I had a classical American high school education, which means nothing here. In my memories, generations of my family were all farmers until we were wiped out with the recent attack. I knew how to farm as well, but that was less than useful when wanting to join a family. There was only one goddess I knew that was willing to take in just about anyone at this time…Hestia.

Hestia was a goddess that wasn't well known as of yet, and as a result, no one was willing to join her family. I found that to be extremely strange, because I feel like people would do anything to obtain a falna, but apparently, that isn't the case. Anyways, I remember that Hestia used to work during the day at food stands while Bell was fighting in the Dungeon.

Speaking of which, Bell should be meeting Ais soon in the dungeon today, which will allow him to obtain his awesome cheat skill and rapidly grow. While that is happening, I should go and see if I can become a part of the Hestia family. If it doesn't work out, I'll work some random job, earn money for food and shelter, and go from there. Then I'll save up some money to get some basic combat training. After that, someone should accept me into their family. Hopefully.

I walked around a bit until I gave up and asked where the food stalls were generally located. Orario was huge, so if I searched the entire city on my own, I would never find her. Apparently food stalls were located mainly closer to Babel. Babel was the large tower in the center of Orario and the entrance to the dungeon. A lot of traffic went through this area, so food stalls could make money if they sold food to dungeon divers.

I found Hestia outside a food stall that was selling some potato snacks. She had this ethereal look about her that made her look slightly different. You couldn't mistake her for anything other than a goddess. You could also see her cute face with deep blue eyes that just sucked you in. You could also see exactly why she was called "loli big boobs" amongst her own people. Her clothes looked old and frayed, and had two cute ribbons with silver bells that tied up twin ponytails that went down to her waist. She was working hard at the stall and you could see that she had been through some rough times. Correction—she was going through a tough time. Hopefully, I could help make things a little better. I decided that there was no other way but to rip off the Band-Aid and see how it went.

"Hello, my name is Krishna Khanna. Are you Miss Hestia? I would like to join your family."

Hestia had a shocked appearance on her face. Her eyes and mouth with wide open, and yelped out "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" I guess people really didn't want to be in her family.

It was silent for a long moment. Then she spoke up again with a depressed voice. "Why? Why do you want to join my family? I haven't been able to get anyone else to join my family since I've been in Orario, except one person. That person is someone that no one else would take. We struggle every day just to live. I barely have a family at all. Why would you want to be a part of that?"

I looked her in the eye. "I'm probably someone that no one would want to take into their family either. I have no useful skills other than farming, and that's not helpful in a dungeon. I heard there was a loli goddess that was willing to take just about anyone into their family."

I could see the tick marks on her forehead. This place really is like an anime. "So you just came to try your luck?"

"That's right." Why lie? It was true.

She sighed. "If you're willing to wait for me to finish my job here today, then I'll take you somewhere and interview whether you are a good fit for my family."

"Sure thing." I obviously had nothing better to do and nowhere to go. Clearly, it was my only option.

Now I'm guessing that people might be wondering why I haven't thought of mentioning that I was transmigrated. It's because I did have an actual life here, plus the Bus stated that I wouldn't be able to tell anyone even if I wanted to. Even the combined might of all the Gods in this world wouldn't be able to make me say it or read that information from my mind. Of course, the gods weren't supposed to use their powers in this world, so that was a moot point.

In like 90 minutes, Hestia was done at that particular food stall and we found a nice quiet corner to sit and talk.

She started to interview me. "Tell me, why do you want to join my family?"

"To get stronger and make money. I want to be a dungeon diver."

"Are you aware that diving into a dungeon is dangerous? Especially without any training?"

"Yes. I know."

"Do you…never mind. My family is severely lacking in members. Even if you don't have any talent, I can't really bring myself to send you away based on normal standards. Realistically, Bell needs back up in the Dungeon. He can't solo it anymore, or else he will eventually die." She sighed. "There's only one real question that I need to know the answer to. To me, it feels like your only goal is to be stronger. Will you also treat us like real family? For Bell and I, we only really want people that are willing to be a real family with us. If you aren't willing to be a family with us, then it is best that you look elsewhere."

For the first time, I thought about that. I really thought about it. Being a part of the family meant joining in all of the troubles that would soon follow Bell. Being a part of the family would also mean picking up the debt that Hestia will soon accrue for Bell. Was I really willing to take up all of their burdens? The truth of the matter is that life was going to be hard for me in this family. Bell would out level me in a matter of days. He would gain stronger and stronger enemies that I wouldn't be able to deal with, as I would be lagging behind. Although I would gain strength faster with my cheat, realistically, I would never be able to catch up to Liaris Freese.

I thought about it for a couple of minutes and made up my mind. Diamonds are made under pressure. I could do a lot worse when it came to family.

I smiled. "Yes, I am willing to be a part of the Hestia Family. It'll be nice to have a family again."

Hestia smiled back at me. "Then I welcome you to my family! Let's go back to my place and I can give you your falna."

I followed Hestia off of a main street and followed her through a bunch of twists and turns until we reached an old church. So this was the old decrepit church that I remember from the story. It was smaller than I imagined.

Hestia seemed a bit embarrassed. "Ah! I know it's not much but we should be able to live somewhere better soon! Until then, one of my friends is letting us borrow the place. I hope you're alright with this…"

"It's great. Thank you." I gave her the gentlest smile that I could. I didn't want to be rude, and it's not like I had anywhere else to go.

She beamed. "That's great! Okay, so please take off your shirt and lie on the couch on your stomach."

I took off my shirt and got onto the couch. Hestia went to my side.

"Don't move or make a sound." She said it authoritatively. "Inscribing your falna in for the first time is harder than it looks."

I don't know what she did, but all of a sudden, I felt something drop on my back and I felt warm on the inside. It was like I had never known that there was a piece of me missing before, and now I finally felt complete. I wonder if everyone feels like this. I'm going to ask Bell later.

Hestia continued to knead my back. I believe she is shaping my falna right now. Gods are able to read our excelia, also known as experience, to learn our complete life stories. Apparently, everyone obtains excelia, but combat makes it raise far faster than any other methods. Other things like blacksmithing or making potions allows for an increase in excelia too, but not nearly and much or as fast as combat. To put it succinctly, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. More dangerous situations you are able to overcome will lead to much greater excelia gain. Hestia explains that she is currently changing my falna to match my excelia, which will make me stronger.

Here's a current look at your status."

 **Krishna Khanna**

Level 1

 **Basic Abilities**

Strength I0

Endurance I0

Dexterity I0

Agility I0

Magic I0

 **Developmental Abilities:** N/A

 **Magic** : N/A

 **Skills:** N/A

Like God said, Insight and Developmental Genius was missing. At least I knew how to get it back.

Right at that moment, we hear Bell's voice. "Goddess! I'm home!" Bell Cranel walks in with his clothes still drenched in blood. It actually looks a bit nauseating. Then he sees me and takes a battle stance.

"Ah Bell! Hey! Aren't you a bit earlier today?"

Bell looks sheepish. "Well, I almost died in the dungeon today…"

"What, what? You okay? It'd be a real shock to me if you died. I'd be lonely and possibly really sad, too." Hestia is really flirting with Bell.

Her tiny hands dance up and down Bell's body, 'looking for injuries', while Bell blushes. I feel like I'm actually intruding on a private couple moment.

"Don't worry. I won't leave my goddess high and dry." Ah Bell, you sound like a Knight in shining armor. Pretty darn corny.

"Oh? I'm glad you've made up your mind because I need a lot of water." Dude, Hestia. I'm still in the room.

"That's an interesting way to put it…" Dude Bell, you're not being smooth at all. I can almost see the steam coming out of your ears.

Thankfully, at this point, Hestia shows him some mercy. "I bet you didn't get much money at all today, did you?"

"No, not as much as usual. How about you, Goddess?"

"Hee-hee! Take a look at this! Ta-da!" Hestia pulls out a paper ball.

"Th-those are?!"

"Yep! I did so well at the shop today that I got these potato snacks for free! Party night! Bell, I won't let you sleep tonight, at all." You guys are partying over some snacks? This family is worse off than I thought. Plus she just implied that she was going to do it with you, Bell.

"Wow! Great job, Goddess!" Nope. Bell didn't even notice. "By the way Goddess…Who is that?" Oh, I see how it is. Did you just change the topics so that you don't have to deal with it? Maybe you are smooth.

"Hi, my name is Krishna Khanna. I'm a new member of your family. It's nice to meet you!" I was finally meeting the MC of the series. It was pretty cool, yet at the same time, I felt kind of sad that a 14 year old child was going to show me up at everything in the future. Wait…Bell looks different from what I remember from the manga and anime. Is he older in this alternate universe?

"Bell Cranel. It's great that we finally have a second member of the family! Tell me Krishna, where are you from?"

"A small rural town called Talvin."

"Talvin…I think I've heard of that place in passing. Barely anyone lives there right?"

"Yup, that sounds exactly like Talvin." I laughed. "Sorry, I'm just a country man. I barely have any combat abilities, but I'm hoping to go dungeon delving to make money anyways."

"…I suppose if you stick to the first floor for a while, it'll be fine. When you feel like it's too easy on that floor and not enough monsters, you can go down another level."

Bell sounded a lot more mature than he did in the anime. I guess he is definitely older in this world.

"How old are you Bell?"

"I'm 17 years old. You?"

"I'm 18 years old. Even though I'm older than you, I'll be depending on you." Bell just smiles and nods.

Thank god he's older in this universe! Now, it won't be as super creepy when all those girls try to cozy up to him. I wonder if the author of this story knew that it was weird for a bunch of older girls to want a young boy. I am disappointed that I won't be able to make as many pedophile jokes to all those girls. Of course, many of those girls are strong, so that's probably not one of my best ideas.

Bell and I wanted to talk more, but Hestia dragged Bell away to do his status update. I decided against saying anything because this status update was extremely important. He needed to get his Liaris Freese skill, so that he could begin his extreme climb up the latter. He was going to be the cornerstone of our family. To put it nicely, Bell was our lynchpin. If he got taken out, we were screwed. Okay, maybe not screwed, but life would be more difficult. I was going to be the constant earner in the family, while slowly but surely building up my skills and power. I would be the stability to Bell's crazy. I plan on making our family a group of elites, like the Loki family. The hilarious rivalry between loli big boobs and flat chest needs to live on!

I noticed something really interesting too. Hestia makes her boobs jiggle a lot more when Bell is around. She is totally doing it on purpose! I can see her doing it to catch his attention all the time. She probably dresses like that on purpose too. Damn, Bell is screwed. She is gunning for you bro! Run, bro, run! Ais Wallenstein all the way! Or do your harem thing. Wonder if that'll work out for you. Too bad all your girls be crazy, just in different ways.

"Bell, I really feel bad making you work by yourself to provide for me." Hestia gives Bell some sort of sad puppy eyes.

"Hey, I'm fine. And you're working, too, aren't you?"

"… I'm sorry I made you join the Family of such a pitiful god…" Wow, Hestia is really depressed.

"Don't worry about something like that! We just got a new member of our family! We won't be alone anymore! Our Familia just got started. Better yet, it's on the rise! Sure, it might be difficult now, but as soon as we get past this first part, we'll go great! Once we get some money saved up, people will be lining up to join us!"

"Bell…you are just so…" Hestia runs up to Bell and hugs him with tears in her eyes. They held this position for a while until I started to feel awkward and coughed to break the lovey dovey atmosphere.

Hestia glared at me for a second before continuing to talk to Bell. "I was so lucky to meet someone like you Bell! Now, for our future, let's update your status!"

"Please!"

Bell takes off his shirt and gets onto the couch. Unlike for me, Hestia jumps on Bell's back. She is clearly playing favorites. Of course, I just met her today, so maybe not, but let's not kid ourselves. She totally wants to get into Bell's pants.

I watched the process for the first time. She pricked her finger and dripped one drop of blood on his back. Bell's Falna appeared and she started grabbing and molding the light. So that's how it looks like when she makes the falna match our excelia. It was pretty cool to watch.

Hestia asked Bell what happened and he told her about how he went deeper into the dungeon with the hope of meeting chicks. I can't believe he actually said something like that out loud. Not just in front of Hestia, who is totally in love with you, but me as well, a total stranger. You could tell that Bell had a pure heart that had complete trust in his family.

He explained how he was paralyzed in fear when he came across a Minotaur on the upper floors where they don't belong. He had almost died when he was saved by Ais Wallenstein, who killed it with just a single swing. You could tell that Bell was completely smitten, and Hestia was totally jealous. She was extremely irritated.

Hestia started giving him a lot of logical, and clearly biased reasons for why he shouldn't attempt to pursue Ais. "Aiz Wallenstein, was it? If she really is that pretty and insanely powerful, other men won't leave her alone. She's bound to have a few favorites by now. Listen up, Bell. This is a crush; you'll get over it. You should move on and focus more on the girls around you. I am a hundred percent sure that there is a beautiful lady who will accept, hold, and support you in your life right now."

Damn Hestia, that's pretty forward, isn't it? Oh wait, Bell doesn't think you're talking about yourself. Hahaha! Sucks for you!

"Besides, the girl Ms. Wallen-something is in the Loki Family. You couldn't marry her anyway." Damn. It's like you could see an arrow go through Bell's heart. That was pretty harsh Hestia.

"Why?" I interrupted.

"People almost always marry someone who's either in the same Family or not in one at all. If two people from different Families marry, which group do the kids belong to?" Hestia explained. It was actually a lot more logical than I expected. "There are other reasons, too, but the important thing is that so many issues get in the way that people avoid inter-family relationships. Then there are us gods too. We may have come here for entertainment, but we still take our families very seriously. Not all of us are friends, and Loki is definitely not a friend."

"I see." I nodded. "I'm glad you told me that in advance so I don't do something like that in the future. Wait, are we enemies with the Loki family?"

"No, we aren't. Loki and I just dislike each other. That's all, for now, at least."

"That's good because our family is just too weak to have enemies at this time. I hope neither of you two go around provoking people, especially since we don't have the power to back ourselves up."

Hestia and Bell both nodded in agreement.

"All done! And just forget about that girl and keep your eyes open. You will find someone as long as you keep looking closer to home!" Really Hestia, you're still going on about that?

"You're cruel, Goddess…" Bell looks crushed.

"Don't worry about it. Just get stronger." I told him.

"What?" Bell asked me confusedly.

"Just get stronger." I repeated. "As long as you get stronger, many problems that seemed impossible will become possible. You just need to keep getting stronger and hold onto those feelings. As long as you completely surpass Ais Wallenstein, no, if you surpass everyone, no one will say anything if you decide to pursue her. And as long as Ais wants to be together with you, we will have your back at that time, no matter what happens."

"Krishna! You-" Hestia was attempting to stop me from saying anymore.

"Hestia!" I stared back at her. She looked away. I knew she understood exactly what I meant. If she continued on her current path, she would lose Bell.

Hestia wouldn't look at us. "Tsk! I'm sorry. But Bell needs to know the reality of the situation! It's not going to be as easy as, 'if you love each other, everything will work out'. Life among families isn't that easy!"

Bell seemed to be affected by that more than I thought he would. It's probably because he is older in this world, and less optimistic.

"It doesn't matter. If you don't try, you'll regret it forever." I gave him a pat on the back and he nodded at me.

I didn't want him to lose his feelings for her. Liaris Freese was just too powerful to give up. Also, it would be nice if Bell got the girl he wanted.

Liaris Freese was interesting and I remember the description was vague. It was something like, as long as his feelings remain the same, his growth will speed up. What feelings was it talking about? Bell's feelings for Ais, or his desire to get stronger? It was vague about that, so I figured I should make sure both continue.

Bell took a copy of his stats from Hestia and looked surprised. I suppose his growth was a lot more than normal, but this is nothing compared to what is going to happen in the future. He walked off to contemplate plans for the future.

"Why are you so irritated?" I asked her directly. I knew it was really because of the appearance of Liaris Freese on Bell's status and how it symbolizes his feeling for Ais.

"You! Why are you trying to override me! He can't be with that Wallenstien person! I won't allow it!" Hestia was extremely determined.

"Why?"

"That's…" Hestia hesitated.

"Because you want to be with Bell?" She seemed really shocked that I figured that out for some odd reason. "Why are you looking at me like that? You were practically throwing yourself at him. It's so obvious."

Hestia turned red and sighed. "I've just gotten used to dealing with a blockhead like Bell, that I forgot that others aren't as dense."

"I get it, but you have to let Bell do whatever he wants."

"No way! I can't believe he's changing because of _that_ woman."

"Do you _want_ him to resent you and leave the family?"

Hestia looked freaked out. "He wouldn't do that! Bell wouldn't do that! He wouldn't leave me alone!"

"Maybe. Or maybe he will resent you for getting in the way of his love. If you stop Bell from doing the things he wants to do, maybe he will leave our family for Loki's in the future to be with Ais Wallenstein."

"What do I do?" Hestia looked at me with pleading in her eyes.

"You have to show Bell your feelings, but slowly, over time. Bell hasn't been in this family much longer than I have right?"

"He joined my family about 2 weeks ago," Hestia admitted.

"Of course he isn't going to just fall in love with you. Maybe that's the way it was for you, but it isn't for him. Similarly, just because Bell has feelings for Ais, it doesn't mean that Ais is going to fall in love with him. It'll take a lot of effort on his part. Meanwhile, you will be at his side all the time, and showing that you care. Eventually, it will either work, or it won't."

"You think that'll really work?" Hestia looked at me hopefully.

"Who really knows? It's the best we can do. If you love someone, you don't manipulate their feelings. Anyways, that's not your real problem. Bell seems like the kind of guy that would end up attracting a lot of girls and end up having a harem."

"Bell does want a harem," Hestia stated absentmindedly.

"It's all of the girls you don't know about that are going to be a problem, not Wallenstein. That's going to be an issue you're going to have to deal with in the future."

"Wha-wha-whaaaaat?" Hestia panicked.

"Yup. Work hard Hestia!" I gave her a thumbs up.

"YOU! I thought you were trying to make me feel better!" Haha, Hestia is so cute.

"I did help. I told you how to win his heart and to watch out for all the other random girls. Anyways, what happened that has you wound up so tight? Was something on Bell's status?"

Hestia froze, and then relaxed. "Nothing special changed on Bell's status except he got a lot stronger."

I looked at her with a knowing smile. "Sure, if you say so. Just remember to learn how to obscure our falna, since we need it to hide our status. Anyways, while teasing you is super fun, we need to talk about important family stuff. Hey Bell! Get in here!" I wanted to throw in the need of obscuring our falna, since I remember that she didn't really know about it initially. Since it was about Bell's safety, I'm sure that she will come through now.

Bell came in and we all took a seat.

"We need to talk about the distribution of money."

"What are you talking about? We just normally put everything into the household funds," Bell explained.

"I know you guys were doing that because you guys were barely making ends meet, but things are going to change soon and we need to set up a system now."

"What are you thinking?" Hestia asked.

"When we start making more valis, and are no longer barely living off what we earn, I think we should do a 90%/10% split. Family members should provide 10% of their income to the family for overall expenses, such as taxes, rent, food, and other stuff Hestia might want."

"What? Why?" Bell questioned.

"Because our family primarily dives into the dungeon to earn money. Equipment is expensive. If we want better stuff, we need to earn it for ourselves. I don't want to take Bell's share of money to buy equipment I should have earned on my own. He is going to need that money to continue going further into the dungeon and make more money."

"But sharing is important among families! We are going to team up in the dungeon, aren't we? If I can help you become stronger by giving you some money, why shouldn't I?"

I didn't know how to respond to that. Bell was just too nice and pure, and he had no idea about his crazy overpowered skill. "Bell, it's because we are a family that I want it to be this way. If you want to help our people with your own money, you are free to do whatever you want with your own money. I don't want to live in a way where I am doing all of the work and other future members of the family aren't contributing."

Hestia chose this moment to interrupt. "But people contribute in different ways."

"Maybe, but we aren't there yet. We have a long way to go before we can have people as a part of our family who don't contribute. After all, if I choose not to earn any money, I'm just going to be a burden, right? Can either of you say we have the ability to take care of an extra person? Do both of you want to stay in this church? And it looks like we are squatting here illegally too."

Bell and Hestia looked at me guiltily. They knew they couldn't afford to have me stay at home.

"We aren't squatting," Hestia explained. "I'm borrowing this place temporarily from a friend."

"Whatever. Look, we can't impose on another god forever. We need to get our own space. The money thing was a suggestion. I just want everyone to think about it." I looked at Bell. "After all, wouldn't you like to buy nice weapons or armor without asking first?" I looked at Hestia. "Wouldn't you like to have your own funds for family and personal stuff without asking us every time?"

"It would be nice to be able to buy things without asking Bell first," Hestia admitted. Bell nodded in agreement.

"Alright, then we will go over this more when our income expands more. I also want to talk about loans. I don't mind if anyone takes or gives out a loan as long as we all agree to it." Everyone nodded. "This goes double for our goddess. If you want to take out a loan, you have to make sure with us first. After all, you, Hestia, have zero financial prowess, and no skills that I know of to pay off the debt yourself. We are the ones who will have to pay it back by risking our lives in the dungeon. I don't mind doing it, but we need to know what we are getting into first."

I could see the tick marks forming on her forehead again. "Although I don't like what you said about having zero skills, it sounds reasonable." Hestia nodded.

"Great, then everyone agrees."

"Yes." Hestia nodded. "Since you became a member of my family now, you need to go register with the guild, so that you can go into the dungeon."

"Sounds good. Anything else I should know?"

Bell got excited. "Oh! You're going to have to choose an advisor there. My advisor there is Eina Tulle. She's very strict, but she is a great advisor! You can go and see her if you want!" Ah Bell, just what I was waiting for. Although I don't need to have the same advisor, it would be easier for me since I know that she is a good one. Also, it doesn't hurt that she is easy on the eyes.

I left the church after saying goodbye with Bell and he showed me the way to the Pantheon, which is where the Guild headquarters are. The guild is a neutral entity that is in charge of the dungeon. It is one of the places where people can go to exchange magic stones and other materials in exchange for money. It's also where people go to register and talk to guild advisors about the dungeon. That service is free because their advice has improved survival of dungeon divers significantly, resulting in more divers alive to buy dungeon products from.

Bell dropped me off, and went back home. I went into the building and followed the signs labelled New Registration. They lead to a short line. It appeared there weren't that many people that joined a family every day. Eventually, after 30 minutes of waiting, I was able to reach the receptionist.

"Hello! Welcome to the Guild! Please fill out this paperwork to become an official member of a family."

The receptionist handed me a couple of pages that asked casual questions, such as name, age, race, and many other questions. The instructions also stated that other than a few pieces of required information, nothing else is required to fill out though, so I left everything blank. It was best not to spend too much time doing stuff like that. Also, in case of a leak from the guild, people wouldn't know anything about me that wasn't publically available.

The receptionist smiled at me professionally. "Thank you for completing the required forms. Your registration is now complete as a level one member of the Hestia family. You have the option of using our advisor services if you wish. Do you have any preferences in race or gender?"

"No, it doesn't matter. I was wondering if I could have Eina Tulle as my advisor. A family member told me that she is good."

The guild member looked at me silently and then sighed. "I can make Eina your advisor, but it's likely that your fellow family member is playing a joke on you."

I was surprised. "Why do you say that?"

"Eina is…intense. She takes her job very seriously and will do her best to make sure you have the knowledge to survive the dungeon. Most people aren't able to last long during her tutelage. Rather, no one has lasted through her entire course on the dungeon. Most people switch advisors—it's just a matter of when. I will say one thing though…Eina does get results. She doesn't lose many people while they are still being advised by her."

I thought about it for a moment. "I think I'll stick with her. My friend wouldn't lie to me, so I'm sure it will be good for me."

"Suit yourself. Please take a seat, and Eina will be out to see you shortly."

I thanked her and took a seat to wait for Eina. After another 30 minutes, Eina finally came out to see me.

"Krishna Khanna? Please follow me."

Eina led me back into one of the private rooms.

"Hello, my name is Eina Tulle, a member of the Guild and advisor to dungeon divers. I was told that you mentioned me by name. May I ask why?"

"Bell Cranel told me that you were a great advisor and that I should ask for you."

She looked at me sharply. "And what is your relationship to Bell Cranel?"

"Fellow family member."

She sucked in a breath. "You joined the Hestia family?" I nodded in confirmation and she sighed. "Well, I suppose it's a good thing that you came to see me. Although Bell appears to be competent, he is still a newbie too, so you will definitely benefit from advising as well. I'm assuming you will be dungeon diving as well?"

"Yes, I will. Hopefully, I'll be able to catch up to Bell soon, but if not, I might have to go solo in the dungeon for a while. I can't hold Bell and the rest of my family back. If I need a lot more time on the first floor, I'm going to take it and be ready, versus dying early."

She looked at me with approval. "Good. I'm glad you understand. The golden rule of the dungeon, which everything else you learn is based upon is that adventurers should _not_ go on adventures. Without proper knowledge and preparation, you are asking for death. The dungeon is one of the biggest death traps in the entire world. Despite knowing this, people will always keep coming for it anyways."

"I agree with what you say. I'm not going down to have an adventure. I'm going down to get stronger and make money."

She readjusted her glasses. "Everyone says that in the beginning, but they get their blessings and falna updated. Slowly over time people become over confident and go to later floors believing that nothing can possibly happen to them, but it isn't true, and they end up losing their lives."

I shrugged. "I can't promise that nothing is going to happen in the dungeon, whether it's death by monsters or other divers. The dungeon is filled with chaos. The only thing I can do is prepare for things the best that I can."

"I will make sure of that." Her eyes glinted. "Let go through all of the basics of dungeon diving." She pulled out this thick book filled to the brim with notes.

The next three hours were fairly agonizing because of the sheer volume of the things Eina wanted to cover. Originally, she wanted me to read everything first and then come back to see her once I finished the book, but I told her that I was going to be entering the dungeon immediately, probably tomorrow with Bell and concentrate on making a little bit of money. The look on her face was priceless.

"You are doing what?" Eina was practically shouting at me.

"We are going into the dungeon tomorrow to make some money. Bell is going to show me the basics."

"You are a complete rookie, who is going to be taught by another rookie! Are you insane? This is a terrible decision!"

"My family needs the money. I'm going in. I don't plan on going past the first floor at this time."

"I see. If it's just the first floor, maybe you can handle it with just Bell. But, I will still teach you everything I can in the next couple of hours."

And Eina did exactly that. And I was grateful. Even though it was extremely boring and excruciating, her advice could be considered priceless. She provided enemy weaknesses, basic tactics, dungeon layouts, and other invaluable advice for the first floor. It was amazing. I even took notes that I would review later. I think my hidden Insight skill was working too, because I didn't drift off during the entire lecture.

"Can we set up another meeting for next week? I want to learn more about the dungeon and about subsequent floors."

Eina smiled. "Of course. Feel free to stop on by at any time in the interim if you have any questions. I am here to improve your chances at survival to the best of my abilities."

Before I left, Eina gave me the beginner's equipment that all dungeon divers first received. Apparently, the Guild provided it for free because it was mass produced and really easy to make. It was also not very good, so it wouldn't last that long, but it was better than nothing. Beggars can't be choosers. I thanked Eina and then I left for home. All of the information she told me was buzzing around in my head. I made it back to the church and decided to go back to sleep after eating a bunch of potato snacks. Tomorrow was going to be a long day. It was going to be my first day in the dungeon.


	3. Chapter 3 - Training Day

Note: A lot of stuff, especially In terms of descriptions, was taken directly from the source material. That's why this chapter didn't take long to come out. All three chapters need quite a bit of touching up though. Maybe in a couple of months.

 **Chapter 3 – Training Day**

I woke up the next morning feeling nervous and stressed. Today is going to be my first dive into the dungeon. I have literally no combat experience, so this was going to be more difficult for me. Basically, it felt like the test of a lifetime, where I was going to be thrown into a life or death situation soon.

On top of everything, the church is cramped and there isn't a lot of space for all of us. I slept on the floor while Bell took the couch. He offered, but I declined. I prefer the ground to the couch because I turn around a lot at night and tend to fall off couches. Anyways, I woke in the living room and I found Hestia sleeping on top of Bell. Which is awkward. Super awkward. Why is Hestia still trying to get it on with Bell while I'm in the room? Yeah, we needed to fix our living arrangements as soon as possible.

Bell slowly pulled himself out from underneath our goddess. "Are you ready for today? I'm going to introduce you to the dungeon. We are going to go to the first floor. Maybe even the second, if it looks like you have talent."

"Sounds good." I agreed since he was the expert out of the two of us. In addition, I still had all of Eina's advice buzzing in my head. I should be alright.

Bell noticed that I was struggling to put on my armor. "Let me show you how to put on everything."

He explained how to do it in a concise manner that was easy to remember. After we suited up, we headed towards the dungeon. On the way, Bell tensed up. I had no idea why, and it was making me nervous too. Then, a voice spoke out behind us.

"Um, excuse me…" We jump in surprise. Bell spins around and gets into an attack position. I think his reaction is a little extreme, but he's the senior adventurer. He must be able to sense something that I can't.

Anyways, it was just a normal girl standing there behind us. I feel a little silly about our freak out, but then again, for all we know, she could be a high level adventurer. You can't tell based on appearance.

She was wearing a white blouse with a light green knee-length skirt. On top of that is a salon apron. Her simple blue-gray hair is tied into a tight bun on the back of her head, but a ponytail sticks out from the center of it. She looks like the girl next door.

Her eyes, the same color as her hair, look innocent and rather cute. She's so scared that her smooth, milky skin is all bunched up around her eyes. Probably because Bell's fist is in her face…Wait, she's that waitress girl from that restaurant that cons Bell out of money.

"S-sorry! I was just a little surprised…" Bell apologized profusely. As he should for almost attacking her.

"No, no! I'm sorry for startling you…" She bows back at him.

"Um, can we help you?" I interrupted their apologizing contest.

"Oh… yes. Here, you dropped this." A bluish purple crystal sits in her outstretched palm.

"A magic stone? Huh?" Bell is surprised, but he accepts it. "Thank you very much!"

I think it's highly unlikely for a poor family like ours to miss selling a magic stone. She probably made that up because she noticed the state of our equipment and clothes.

"Oh, no. Don't mention it." The girl smiles and all of the tension flows away from Bell's face as he smiles back. It's as if he had forgotten that he was riled up in the first place.

"Are you already heading to the Dungeon at this hour?" She asked us casually.

"Yep, I thought I'd get to work a bit early today."

She asked that question to break the awkward silence. I'm getting bored of this conversation filled with small talk. I'm really excited to go to the dungeon for the first time, so when I'm just about to end this awkward encounter, when Bell's stomach rumbles.

"…" Yeah, Bell just made things more awkward.

Her eyes go wide and Bell's face turns red. Then she laughs at him. "Ha ha. Are you hungry?"

"… Yeah." Bell admits.

"We were in a rush, so we didn't get to eat much this morning." I added in.

"So, you didn't have any breakfast this morning?" Bell just stays silent.

I see a little light flick on in her eyes. She suddenly turns and runs quickly to the café, her boots clopping on the Main Street pavement. She disappears into a side door and returns almost as quickly as she left. She has a charming little basket clutched in her arms. Bread and cheese are sticking up from the brim.

"If this is okay…I mean, the café isn't open yet, so all I can offer is my morning rations…"

"Eh? No, no, no. That's your breakfast! I can't accept it!" Bell frantically refuses it.

She looks a little bit shy and bites her lip. Damn, she is so into Bell. Ha ha, sucks for you Hestia.

"I can't leave you hungry like this. It would make me sad as a person to do that. So please, Mr. Adventurer, accept it, for me." She's really laying it on thick there.

"How can I say no to that…?" Bell is such a sucker.

A playful smile creeps over her face. She leans forward until her face is just a few inches from Bell.

"Mr. Adventurer, I'm making this sacrifice for you. So in exchange for the bread and cheese this morning…"

"In exchange…?" Bell's eyes widened. I wonder if he thinks that he has to pay with his body or something.

"You have to eat dinner tonight at the bar I work at." You don't really get the full effect from the manga, but she really is a smooth operator.

"…You don't play fair, do you…?"

"Hee-hee-hee. Here you are! Don't worry about it because I'm sure I'm going to make a lot of money today!"

"No, I'm going into the dungeon for the first time, and he is going to show me the ropes, so we probably won't make that much money." I interrupted their feel-good moment. "But we'll stop by anyway, and spend a little in celebration."

"…" She stared at me with an annoyed look on her face. I totally ruined her flow.

"… Well then, I'll be seeing you tonight." Bell agreed.

"Yes! I'll be waiting!"

She laughs as we leave. I vaguely remember that what happens at this restaurant is an important moment in Bell's life so we can't skip what happens here. I mean, assuming that it still happens. I don't know how different this alternate universe is, and how much the butterfly effect is going to change things.

We walk down Main Street, toward the tower at the center of the city. There are lines of tall buildings around us, but the center tower, Babel, looms over all of them. The Dungeon is waiting below it.

I can't wait.

We enter the dungeon after providing our Guild cards to the people in charge. Apparently, if we don't come back, everyone will know we perished in the dungeon. Good stuff.

Anyways, the dungeon was way creepier than I had imagined it to be. From the anime and manga, either you couldn't tell, or it's just different in this universe. The walls are light blue colored and it feels like walking through normal caves. The place is somehow well lit too, although I don't really understand the source of natural light, which is probably provided by the dungeon, or why it even exists in the first place.

A goblin appeared. Bell pulled out his knife. "Watch me. Do you remember the goblin's weak points?"

"Yes. Neck, chest, armpits, thighs, and core. Basically anywhere is a weak point. A normal person should be able to take down a single goblin without any problems as long as they focus on dodging all the attacks, which are fairly simple attack patterns."

"Yes, although I've only been doing this for 2 weeks, I can take on a goblin by myself without any special preparation. Watch me."

Bell runs forwards, and slashes his knife across the goblins throat. He seems surprised. "Huh, it seems a lot easier than it was before. It must be because of the changes in my falna. Regardless, as a new adventurer, you need to be extremely careful. I remember barely killing a single goblin, when I went in my first day. I had to scout everything and make sure I wouldn't ever meet up with two goblins. I had to run away more often than I expected."

Oh god. This was going to be bad.

He noticed the look on my face. "Don't worry. I have your back. You just have to try your best."

So we wandered around near the entrance a bit more and eventually we came across another goblin. It was my turn this time. It was best to actually learn self-defense from someone who actually knows how to fight somewhat. I understood the theory behind everything that was said, but I wasn't sure if my body would actually do what my mind was saying.

I pulled out the knife given by the guild. It was go time.

I just want to say that 'go time' was a disaster. It was ugly. I went for the goblin. My first mistake was trying to kill the goblin like Bell did by going for the neck. The goblin dodged and counterattacked with a kick quite easily and nailed me in the chest.

I got kicked back and launched a couple of feet. And it hurt! I bet that it would have been a lot worse if I wasn't wearing the free guild armor. No wonder they give that stuff out. Without the armor, that attack would have knocked the wind out of me and I would've died to its follow up attack.

When the goblin noticed it had the advantage, it tried to follow up on the attack. Now that I learned my lesson against looking cool, I quickly moved out of the way. It ended up like a bad game of tag, where the goblin was it, and if it got me, I would die.

"If you keep running away, you won't be able to win!" Bell coached from the side.

That was true, so I planned the next moment. When the goblin attacked next, I dodged with less space. With each attack, I reduced the space until I was close enough. The next time he attacked, I dodged and swung my knife, and landed a nice cut on one of his arms. Of course, I was aiming for his chest, but hey, baby steps. It made the goblin go berserk and he attacked even more frantically. I was able to get another cut on its arm, and a couple on the legs and chest until the goblin tried to run.

"Stop it before it escapes!" Bell shouted.

I ran after it and tackled it down. The goblin and I wrestled until I was able to get behind it. I grabbed its neck and snapped it. It was the ugliest and most brutal kill someone could make, especially with a goblin.

"Not bad, but there's a lot to improve on. You know that you shouldn't have gone for the neck first since you're an amateur. Aim for injuring and crippling attacks, and preventing yourself from taking any damage. The gut is a good place to aim for a kill. Also, you don't want to have to brawl and wrestle with every goblin you meet. It's alright. We'll get there." Bell was teaching and encouraging me.

Around Bell were a couple more dead goblins. Apparently he took them out and kept me safe at the same time. He noticed me looking. "A couple goblins came, but I was able to take care of them. Let me show you how to take out their cores." He cut open their chests to reveal a small shard, also known as the magic stone. It wasn't worth much, but it was still money. I cut open the goblin that I killed, and took out the shard. I placed it into a bag I brought along. Hopefully, there will be better ways to store our loot in the future.

The kobold's body starts changing the moment I pull out the shard. At first, it flattens out like strings had been cut, and color drains from its face. Then without warning, its entire body turns to ash and disappears without a trace. All monsters disappear after their magic stone is removed.

The next time a goblin appears, the fight doesn't take me nearly as long. Goblins aren't that smart, so when the goblin attacked, I moved out of the way and counterattacked quickly and precisely with a knife into the gut and tore into it. Once I got over my fear of instant death, killing a single goblin wasn't a big deal. It might take a while, but it wasn't impossible. Clearly, Insight was working well for me.

A few times, I came across multiple goblins, but we were able to handle them. I would take one, and Bell would take on the rest. If I was able to finish one off, I'd help with another, if Bell hadn't killed them all already. All in all, it wasn't a bad day. At the end of the first floor, I had killed more than 10 monsters myself. They had become a joke because they weren't that smart.

Bell had fought far more than I had, and even showed me a couple of fights with some Kobolds, a short dog headed monster, that was a bit tougher and smarter than goblins. It was still essentially the same thing, but they are more likely to work in groups. We ran from any groups greater than four. Till then, I could take on one of the kobolds, and Bell could fight the rest. I'm pretty sure Bell could have handled more if he didn't have to worry about me. Boiling it all down, we had to run away a lot, but we still got a decent amount of kills.

Bell told me that with the both of us, he made more money today than he has in the last 2 weeks. We killed over 60 monsters and can carry all the stones and drops by splitting it all between us. Part of it was that we were working in a group, but it was mainly because Bell's Blessing has increased significantly. He could kill monsters easily that he wasn't able to deal with before.

We decided to stop for the day and turn around to head on back to the exchange and turn everything in. Surprisingly, there are a lot of monsters on the way back too, so we killed whatever we could and ran from the rest. On the way home, we stopped off at the exchange in the guild.

At the counter, we met the receptionist. "Hello, please place all the dungeon drops into the tray in front of you."

Bell and I emptied out our bags. "Thank you. Please wait a moment while I tally up your total."

A minute later. "Thanks for waiting. Your total comes out to be 10,000 Valis. How would you like to receive your payment? Would you like payment to be given in cash, posted into your personal account, or into your family account?"

I didn't realize there were options other than cash. Bel went ahead and spoke. "Krishna doesn't have an account yet, so we would like for you to process that now. In the meanwhile, please transfer 45% of the funds into my account, and 10%, which should be transferred into our overall Hestia Family account, which can be set up now as well. The remaining money should be sent into Krishna's account, when it's ready."

"Bell! I can't do that! You did most of the work!"

"Don't worry about it. We help each other out. Anyways, together, we are earning way more than I ever did alone! If we continue like this, we'll be fine! It's only a day's worth of work after all, and maybe we will make even more tomorrow after our falna updates!"

I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was going to leave me in the dust pretty quickly. If he was a normal adventurer, we would have made a great team. Unfortunately, he was an insanely fast grower, and my own ability just was not up to par. "Hopefully!"

Accounts were an interesting thing. There used to be a large amount of crime in the city when people used to use physical money. Most of the time, the thieves would never be caught, so city officials worked with the guild to determine a new method to exchange money. They came up with a special magical tattoo located on each person's forearm that could be used similarly to a debit card in our world. It greatly reduced the incidence of pickpocketing throughout the city, but crime evolved with the times, making the city even more dangerous than it was before.

We returned back to the old church, where Hestia greeted us enthusiastically.

"Hi Bell! Hi Krishna! How was your time at the dungeon?"

Bell was excited. "It was great! Having a partner in the dungeon made it a lot easier to do everything! We earned a lot more money today!"

"Bell is really strong. He killed a majority of the monsters in the dungeon." I showered Bell with praise and it made Hestia beam.

"That's great! Let's update your status. Anyways, that's the only thing I can really do for you guys!"

"Thanks Goddess! After this we're going to go out and get some food at a restaurant! We were given some free rations for the day by one of the girls that works there and so we are returning the favor. We're going to celebrate Krishna joining our family and going into the dungeon together for the first time."

"Sounds great!" Hestia replied cheerfully.

 **Bell Cranell**

Level One

Strength: I-82 - H-120

Endurance: I-13 - I-42

Dexterity: I-96 - H-139

Agility: H-172 - G-225

Magic: I-0

Magic: N/A

Skill: N/A

"…Huh?" Bell stared at the page Hestia gave him unintelligibly. "Um… Goddess? Are you sure these numbers are right?"

"…What? Do you think I'm too stupid to copy down numbers?!" Damn, Hestia is super irritated.

"N-no! It's not that, it's just…" Bell stumbled over his words. I guess he's just beginning to see the effect of his special skill. He improved 160 points in just one day and that's just the beginning of everything. "Goddess, something has to be wrong. Look here. I got hit once today, once! And my Defense goes through the roof?"

"…" Hestia was silent. I wonder how long she can keep this a secret from Bell.

"This isn't right, Goddess. I… um…Goddess?"

"…" Hestia's in a bad mood, a really bad mood. Her eyes are kind of scary. 'I am pissed' is written all over her.

"Goddess…?" Bell is sweating buckets at this point.

"…"

"Um… Goddess?"

"…"

"Please tell me, why did my status go up so much?" Bro, you should just let it go. At this point, it looks like she's going to stab you. Hestia is probably a closet yandere.

"… Hell if I know." She puffs out her cheeks and turns away. It looks cute all of a sudden. Weird. "Hmph."

She stomps off to the closet making angry sounds along the way. Even her ponytails twitch with rage. Shaking with fury, she opens the closet and pulls out a custom overcoat. Throwing it over her shoulders, she walks right past me toward the door.

"I have something to go to for my part-time job. Have fun 'spreading your wings' and eating a gorgeous meal by yourselves!"

BANG! She slams the door so hard the room shakes. Ah, she left without updating my status. What am I, chopped liver? It feels like Hestia doesn't care for anyone other than Bell. Clearly, I can't rely on her. Starting to regret not taking that automatically updating falna skill.

"Something to go to?"

"Just let it go, Bell. Hestia is probably just having her period." Say a random sexist comment about a goddess to throw Bell off-Check.

He blushed. "Goddesses have periods too?"

"No idea. Who cares! Let's go eat!" After successfully distracting Bell, we headed out for that restaurant. Forgot the name. Ehh, I'm sure Bell will find it.

Strangely enough, we left in full gear. As a result of the large population, the city wasn't that safe of a place. There were still general undesirables all around.

As we wandered through the traffic of Main Street, I noticed that it looked really different from this morning. In the morning, it was all locals who live and work out here, but at night, all of the adventurers left the dungeon and flooded the streets. There was plenty of music throughout the street everywhere. We could see adventurers back safe from the dungeon and people who just finished a hard day at work are indulging in a well-earned drink.

Voices poured out of all the bars that line Main Street. Demi-humans are smiling, drawing people off the streets and luring them into their respective establishments. A group of prums and gnomes, the shortest of the demi-human races, are standing shoulder to shoulder and singing to their hearts' content. Even a dwarf joins in their jolly circle to hum a few notes.

Female animal people, a race of demi-humans with animal ears and bushy tails, try to bring in customers with some revealing clothing. But they have nothing on the Amazons, who are walking around wearing not much more than loincloths. The Amazons don't seem to care about all eyes on them as they go about their business. Have I said how much I love this world? I never want to leave.

"… This should be it…" Bell mumbled. We stopped right in front of it.

The building is made of stone. It's two stories tall like the rest, but it looks very deep. It might be the biggest bar in the area. There is a beautiful terrace too. The Benevolent Mistress was written in large bold letters on an impressive looking sign.

Opening the door, I immediately see a stalwart female dwarf, probably the owner, behind a counter and a group of young cat-people girls in aprons serving food and alcohol to customers. Looking around the place, all the employees taking orders and carrying food are girls. It was a legitimate cat girl maid café. That's just crazy. I never thought it would be real or that I would actually go to one. If I didn't know that those cat girls were real, and not just girls dressing up as cats, I would have totally left in embarrassment. I may like manga, but I'm not a creepy otaku.

I didn't remember this, but this place is clearly out of our league at the moment. Since we are just starting out, it's not worth it at the moment. Oh well, whatever, we can at least handle tonight. Don't want to ruin the celebratory mood.

It is cheerful here. The waitresses are hopping from table to table with big smiles, and customers are happy. This place feels alive! Most of the patrons are male, and adventurers by the looks of them. They come off a little intimidating, but they're happily drinking with their buddies. And the food looks amazing! Hopefully, Bell and I will have a good time. I mean, assuming what happened before in the original story doesn't happen in this world.

The decorations and style of the bar are pretty contemporary and the terrace off of the main entrance adds to its flare.

Bell looks shocked and uncomfortable about it. Poor little guy probably doesn't realize that all of the bars around here are probably the exact same. Actually, those are probably even worse. The girls are here and beautiful and aren't wearing any revealing outfits. Other places would probably have barely clothed women all over us. He needs to get used to this kind of stuff. We (but really just him) are aiming to be more than just village boys.

The moment that Bell looks like he is about to bolt, a voice calls out.

"Ah! It's you!" The girl we met in the morning popped up out of nowhere. She's still wearing the same blouse, skirt, and apron from this morning. "I'm glad you were able to come! I realize that I forgot to introduce myself this morning. My name is Syr Flova."

"…" Bell stood there frozen.

When Bell didn't respond, I said, "I'm Krishna Khanna, and this is my friend Bell Cranel. It's very nice to meet you."

She beamed. "It's nice to meet you too! Let me take you to your table. Now seating two!"

She led us to a nice table near the bar. "Please have a seat here."

"T-thank you." Bell said shakily. He broke out of his charm induced stupor. Ah, Bell is just so hilarious sometimes.

"So you're Syr's guests, eh? Ha-ha, you got a charming face fer an adventurer." The owner is jovially talking to Bell. Bell looks like he wants to crawl into a hole.

The dwarfess is leaning halfway over the counter, scanning us with her intense dark eyes.

"Just give us a holler if you need somethin'! I hear you're going all out tonight! I'll keep the food comin', all you gotta do is keep on orderin'!"

"What? Who said I was going all out? That's news to me!"

"… Hee-hee-hee." Syr gives an "I'm innocent" smile. "Well, I told Mama Mia that I invited someone here tonight, and I kinda talked you up a bit and things got a little out of hand…"

"That was on purpose, wasn't it?!" Bell is getting super riled up.

"I'm rooting for you!" Truly an evil witch behind that face.

"Please, just clear this up!" Bell begged. "I won't be going all out! My Familia is dirt poor, it's impossible!"

"… I'm so hungry… Couldn't eat breakfast… My strength… It's leaving me…"

"Let's order her a small appetizer." I told Bell. "She'll finally get a little bit of food in, so she can continue her work."

She gave me a dirty look. "No, no, I'll be fine. My shift ends soon anyways. But thank you for the offer."

"No, no! You gave us some food this morning so we definitely need to return the favor!" I didn't want to owe this girl, but I didn't want to make Bell feel bad either.

Bell nodded. "I agree! If you're that hungry because of us, we definitely have to get you something to eat. You have to join us when that happens!" Ah Bell, you _do_ know how to play along.

Now she was giving both of us dirty looks. "Fine, fine! I know when I'm out numbered. It's just a joke anyways. I wanted to have a bit of fun, that's all. Please, take your time and order when you are ready."

Clever girl, this one.

"… Okay. But just a little." Bell finally felt reassured.

I took a look at the menu and the prices were insanely high. According to Bell, Fifty vals' worth of food is enough to fill someone up. It probably wasn't worth it to eat here on the regular. We barely have enough to pay for repairs for our weapons and armor.

We weren't able to afford much so we each got a plate of pasta, and we ordered a small appetizer for Syr to eat if she came back to our table.

The food here all looked and smelled really delicious. I can't wait until our food comes out.

"How 'bout some ale?" The proprietress offered.

I politely refused the owner's offer on behalf of Bell and myself, because we don't have money to throw around.

She just ignores my words and thumps them down on the table anyway. Why did she even bother asking?

"Is this on the house?" I asked her.

"Nope." She answers me directly.

"Then take it back. We don't have the money for it yet." I looked her in the eye. "We are only here right now because we promised to eat here after Syr helped us out. Otherwise we can't afford this place at all, and have to spend extra time in the dungeon to pay for our family."

The owner just nodded and took it back.

Bell looked at me hesitantly.

"Bell, Just say what you want to say."

He gathered his courage. "Shouldn't we have just accepted the drinks? It's not like it's that much more money."

"You're right Bell. It's not that much money. Actually, it's not just about the money. Don't you feel bad that we are blowing away all our money on some food and drink without our goddess? Who knows what she is going to eat tonight, and here we are having fun eating at an expensive restaurant."

Bell looked crushed at the realization. "…Should we leave?"

"No, I'm not saying that we shouldn't have fun, but the family comes first. It's not good for us to blow money on non-essentials when we are this poor. You know as well as I do, anything can happen in the dungeon. You were attacked by a Minotaur on the upper floors! Maybe in a couple of weeks or months it won't hurt as much to eat out like this, but right now, every valis counts. Our family can't afford to be careless. Other than essentials, everything should go towards improving ourselves for the dungeon."

"Well said." Standing behind me was the owner. "Proper preparation is the key to everything. Work hard, and play hard when you can. Do everything in your power to survive when you're down there, even if it's unseemly. As long as you're alive, anything can be done."

I nodded back to her. "Thanks."

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Syr came back.

"… I'm a bit overwhelmed, actually…" Bell sheepishly scratched his head. He's such a lady killer.

She unties her apron; her dusty blue hair shakes as she pulls it over her head. She puts it up on a hook on the wall, drags a stool up to me, and sits down.

"We actually did order you a small appetizer. Eat up!" I laugh and she smiles.

"Thanks!" She starts taking bites of the appetizer.

"What about your job?" Bell asked.

"Obviously, Syr is playing hooky." I pointed out. "Why are you asking such obvious questions?"

She gave me another dirty look. Just one of many in the future. "The kitchen is a little busy, but the others have everything else covered. Things are slowing down a bit, too."

She shoots a pleading look at the owner, asking for permission. The owner raises her chin in a jerking nod, giving her the okay.

Bell started making small talk. "Well, first let me say thank you for this morning. The bread was delicious."

"No, no. You coming here tonight made my empty stomach worth it." She's still bringing that up?

"Don't you mean it was worth it to force me to spend a lot on dinner?"

Syr laughs with a smile, bowing her head and saying, "Sorry." I bet she's not actually serious.

After that, Bell asked her a bit about the bar itself.

This bar, The Benevolent Mistress, was founded by an ex-adventurer, the female dwarf behind the counter. Her name is Mia, but the employees here usually call her "Mama" or "Mama Mia." She got permission from the god of her Family to retire from dungeon crawling and open up a shop. I forgot who her Patron God is. I can't remember but I think it was someone suspicious, like Freya. Great. Just another thing to worry about.

She only hires women, period. However, Mia employs all types of girls with questionable backgrounds and welcomes them with open arms.

"What about you?" Bell asked.

"Dude! You can't just ask that! Anyways, clearly she comes from a questionable background too." I nodded at Bell completely convinced.

She gives me another look. "It looked like a fun place to work. We've become pretty popular with adventurers recently, so money is flowing in. The pay is good, too."

"… Are you one of those people who's in love with money, Syr? Kidding, kidding!" Ah Bell, so you do know how to joke properly!

"You too Bell?" She gave a fake hurt look. "More people means more possibilities. I get really excited just thinking about what I might discover on any given day."

She turns away from the counter and looks across the main floor of the bar. Her eyes are bright and she is smiling widely. You can see the lively atmosphere across the entire restaurant. Ahem. She made one of those fake coughs as soon as she saw us looking at her. She's starting to blush, too.

"Anyway, that's how it is."

"… That's quite the hobby you've got there." Bell says happily. I guess her personality resonates with him.

I wonder how much of what she is saying is true. I remember she had a bunch of random suspicious behaviors throughout the story.

Suddenly, the doors open and a group of about ten new customers enters into the bar.

"The adventurers with the reservations have arrived!" One of the cat girls yells out. They're all led to an empty table in the opposite corner of the main floor.

It seems the Loki Family has finally entered the scene. The band is composed of many different races. They all looked really strong, too. I think they were all level 5? I have no idea if I'm just making that up. All I remember from the anime is that Ais was Level 6.

I caught a glimpse of blond hair so shiny it could be made of real gold. Wow, the manga and anime did not do Ais justice. She was a lot prettier than I had expected. Her body looked so delicate and doll-like as if it would break if you touched it. She doesn't walk, she glides. No wonder half of Orario was in love with her. Doesn't matter much to me though, because she's Bell's future girl. Bros before hoes. I'm not going to ruin that for him. Plus, I don't have a chance. That's also a small, but important factor. And I don't want to deal with the hassle like Bell does.

I heard Bell gasp and I saw him staring at her like a love struck fool.

People started chattering in the background.

"… Ooho!" "They royalty or somethin'?" "Course not, moron. Look at the emblems." "… Meh."

Other customers just figured out that this troop belongs to the Loki Family. A different set of whispers spreads throughout the bar.

"So that's them." "… They're the "giant-killer family, eh?" "Aren't they first-class all-stars?!"

Waves of awe echo through all of their voices. Some of them whistle at Ms. Wallenstein and other female members of the group as they walk past.

"B-Bell?" Syr tries to catch Bell's attention, but he is in his own world.

"Sorry Syr. Bell's mind just broke. Ais Wallenstein is his idol, ever since she saved his life."

"I see…" Syr seems concerned and disappointed. Sorry Syr, you just can't compete with Ais Wallenstein. On top of that, you're going to have Hestia breathing down your back if you try to capture Bell.

Bell is using the bar as a secret vantage point to watch the Loki Family like a creepy stalker.

The Loki Family finally takes a seat, and they are super loud at the same time.

"Yes! Great day out there in the Dungeon today, people! Time to cut loose! Drink up!"

One of them stands up and makes a toast. His back is to us, so we can't see his face.

They all start talking at once. Loud clinks of glasses, cutlery hitting plates, shoveling food into their mouths. Ais Wallenstein just has a small plate in front of her, taking her time.

As if Loki Family's toast was some kind of signal, other patrons remember they have drinks and food, too. It's like the room flipped a switch and went back to normal.

"Loki Family members are regulars here. Their goddess, Loki, seems to like it here." Syr whispered to Bell. You could see the gears turning in Bell's head as he smiled. Clearly, he was going to be coming back often, so that he could stalk Ais. Well played Syr, well played.

Even now, Bell is watching her every moment. I feel embarrassed for being at the same table as this guy.

"Yeah, Aiz! Tell us that one story!" A young male animal person sitting two seats diagonally across from her requested the tale. He has a handsome face, but also a very manly aura.

"That one story…?" Ais questions.

"You know the one! About those Minotaurs that got away! Remember, you finished off the last one on the lower fifth! You know: tomato boy!"

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Bell freeze and shiver. The look on his face is unspeakable. I want to stop what's happening but I can't. If he is serious about pursuing Ais Wallenstein, Level 6 adventurer of the Loki Family, he has to hear this. There is no running from this moment. Otherwise, he will remain complacent as the Loki Family grows stronger. Maybe he'd catch up eventually, but it wouldn't be fast enough. Who knows if Ais would find someone else? I'm allowing Bell to have this frustration in his heart so he desperately wants to grow stronger. Although it wouldn't be the best thing for me, it would be the best thing for my family. Otherwise, we'll just be easily bullied in the future.

"Are you talking about the group of Minotaurs that attacked us on the lower seventeenth floor, and they ran away when we fought back?"

"Yeah, yeah! That one! By some miracle they ran up! We tore after them! Already damn tired, too!"

Loki Familia was on some kind of expedition. They encountered a group of Minotaurs on their way back but couldn't slay them all. The remaining Minotaurs ran toward the surface. They caught up to the last one on lower Level Five where Ais Wallenstein delivered the final blow. And at that very spot…

"Yeah, and there! That 'adventurer'! Damn newbie kid!"

"Got himself cornered like a lil' bunny! Shaking like one, too! Poor thing was about to explode!"

"Oh? What happened to the boy? Was he okay?"

"Aiz here carved up the Minotaur at the last second, ain't that right?"

"…" Ais remains silent.

He cocks his eyebrows, upping his manly presence. "The kid took the full blast of that stinky cow's blood, got soaked! So, tomato boy! Gya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ahhh—Ow, my ribs!"

"Woah…"

"Aiz, please tell me you weren't trying to do that! I'm begging you!"

"… No, I wasn't."

The animal guy is laughing so hard he's tearing up. The rest of the table, too. They're laughing at Bell. Even the customers around them are trying not to laugh. "And get this! Tomato boy! He ran away, screaming his head off! Gya-ha-ha-ha! Our princess saves him, and he just buggers off!"

"… Hm."

"GYA-HA-HA-HA-HA! Absolutely priceless! Aizee scares away a newbie! You are sooo awesome!"

"Ha-ha-ha… I'm sorry, Aiz, but I can't take this anymore!"

"…"

"Ooooh, don' make them scary eyes! It ruins yer cute face!" The entire Loki Familia table erupts with laughter.

"Um… B-Bell?" Syr tries to catch Bell's attention. I guess she realized that the story is about him. Unfortunately, it goes in one ear and out the other.

Their conversation is starting back up.

"But really, it's been a long time since I've seen something so pathetic! So disgusting I could cry!"

"… Hmmm."

"The hell was he doing? If you're gonna cry like a little bitch, you shouldn't be down there in the first place! Right, Aiz?"

"…"

"It's weak adventurers like him who give us a bad name. Just give it up already!"

"Shut your mouth already, Bete! It was our mistake that let the Minotaurs escape! That boy had nothing to do with it! And stop drinking! Learn some respect!"

"Oh-oh! You elves and your pride! But yeah, what's in it for you to protect that piece of shit? Saying it's our fault, you're lying to yourself! Just to keep your pride! Trash is trash! What's wrong with calling it what it is?"

"Hey, hey! That's enough! Bete, Reveria, relax! You're killing the mood!"

"Eh, Aiz! What did you think about him, the pathetic piece of shit who was shaking in front of you? Do you think he deserves to stand at our level, as adventurers?"

"… I don't blame him for acting the way he did under those circumstances."

"Why you acting all Goody Two-shoes? Okay then, I'm changin' the question. Him or me—who's got it going on?"

"… Bete, are you drunk?"

"Shut it! Now, Aiz! Choose! As a female, which male wags your tail? Which male makes you hot?"

"… I have no reason to answer that question, especially to you, Bete."

"You're absurd…"

"Quiet, hag!… Well then, what if that piece of trash came up to you, said he liked you, would you take him?"

"… Hm."

"Of course you wouldn't! Why would a tiny kid who's so weak, feeble, and all-around nauseating have the right to even stand next to you? There's no way he'd measure up! A tiny kid could never land Aiz Wallenstein!"

Bell stood up, and the chair flew backward. He ran out the door, to what I assume is the dungeon.

"Bell?!" Syr calls out after him.

Confusion spread through the main floor of the bar.

"Did someone just dine 'n' dash?"

"At Mommy Mia's? The guy's got guts, that's for sure!"

I got up. "Hey, Syr. I'd like to pay now, quickly please. Can you please pack the boxes and hold them for me until tomorrow?"

"Of course." She scanned my tattoo with my bank account, which I shall now call my money mark, with some magic device and it automatically withdrew the required amount of money.

"Thanks!" I quickly left the bar.

Bete and the other adventurers in the corner table ignored the rest of the patrons' comments, but Aiz had stood up and noticed Bell.

I saw her at the front of the building looking for Bell outside. She mouthed Bell's name.

I choose this moment to be his wingman. "His name is Bell Cranel. He is a part of the Hestia Family. He and the rest of us are all very grateful that you saved his life in the Dungeon."

"No, it was our fault. I was just doing my duty and cleaning up our mess. That Minotaur never should have been on the upper floors. It was a death sentence for anyone fighting there."

"Thank you anyways. Bell wanted to thank you when he saw you here today, but…well…"

"…I'm sorry."

"It's not me that needs the apology, and it's not you who should be doing the apology either. To be honest, all that guy said was the truth, although it was pretty rude. Anyways, I have to go after Bell, in case he tries to do something stupid. Anyways, thanks again, and I'll see you around."

"Oi-oi, Aizuuu, what'cha doin'?" I took that moment to leave. I didn't want to waste unnecessary time instead of chasing Bell. I could hear and see them as I left.

A woman had left the table and now stood behind Ais. It was their goddess Loki. She wrapped her arms around the blond girl's body. The woman pressed her hips into Ais's backside and took a squeeze, body and breast. Ais lost her breath for a moment.

Ais grabbed the arm coiled around her stomach and drove her elbow into it. Loki stepped back a bit in surprise, giving Ais enough space to spin around and bury her palm in the goddess's cheek.

"Chee, ya're feisty! Ya don' look it at all, Aizuu!"

"Hands to yourself."

Loki was shaken and looked as if she was about to burst out crying before suddenly smiling with Aiz's dark red handprint still pulsing on her face. She looked to the sky and yelled, "Shy 'n' cool! Soooo my type!" The goddess just came out of the closet to the entire world.

Ais couldn't look at her. It was too embarrassing. "Don' be makin' that face. If Bete's gettin' to ya, I'll have Mommy Mia to string 'im up outside!"

"Hee-hee, Aizuu. Come on back."

"…"

Loki wrapped her arm around Ais's shoulder and guided her inside. Ais fought it long enough to look outside one last time.

I was sneaking glances as I was leaving through the crowd, but eventually, I didn't have the time to pay attention. I needed to hurry towards the dungeon. The street is jam-packed with people and buildings, and it's a pain to get through, but I managed. There's a storm cloud above us, strangely enough, like the world is matching Bell's mood.

Finally I reached the entrance of the Dungeon. I asked someone who was loitering around the entrance whether they had seen a white haired, red eyed, male who was probably crying.

That guy told me, "Oh, that kid with the crazy eyes? Yeah, he looked like he was going to do something desperate and crazy in the Dungeon. I tried to stop him but he didn't even hear me."

Great…Going into the dungeon alone to go after Bell. How…terrifying. His is probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done, and I haven't even had my status updated yet. Oh well, I guess the Hestia family is abound with dumbasses. Guess it's time to put on my big boy pants and try not to die.


	4. Chapter 4

The Story is slowly going to diverge away from Bell's Story as the MC solidifies his place in this world. Have patience.

Also Disney Princess appearance probably won't happen until chapter 6.

 **Chapter 4 – Night Time Adventure**

This was a stupid idea. I regret this. I'm going to die. That's literally all that's going through my head now. I told Eina I wouldn't go into the dungeon alone, and I'm going God knows how far into the dungeon after Bell.

I'm following Bell's carnage through the dungeon and collecting all of the magic stones that I can along the way. Thankfully, Bell gave me a copy of the map of the first 5 floors, so I should be able to navigate my way through.

The blue cave walls feel creepier at night. Without Bell, the Dungeon feels infinitely more dangerous. Clearly, I have been depending on Bell far more than I had thought. I wasn't using any survival techniques. I switched over to the advice that Eina had been pouring into me. I kept vigilant and continuously scanned my surroundings. The worst thing that could happen is if monsters snuck up on me. Monsters were literally born from the walls of the dungeon. They could come from anywhere. If they were smarter, they could take advantage of my blind spot. Thankfully, Goblins and Kobolds are dumb.

As I walked through the dungeon, I could see the corpses that Bell had left behind. It left a nice trail for me to follow. You can't really appreciate it in the story, but there are a lot of bodies. I decided to waste a little bit of time and quickly cut out magic stones and put them in my bag. Our family can't afford to leave stuff behind. If there are any drops, I'm picking them up, but I might have to ditch them in favor of the magic shards instead. It's better for me to have the 40 shards that sell for 4000 valis, which are lighter and take up less space than a drop that is heavy and uses up more space for 4400 valis. Sometimes, you have to make judgement calls.

In less time than I had imagined, I came across a goblin. It didn't notice me yet, so I chose the quickest method. I snuck up on it, and assassinated it with a stab through the back and slit of the throat. I was lucky, but it wasn't going to stay that way.

As I continued walking through the dungeon, I started coming across more and more goblins and kobolds. There weren't as many as normal because of Bell's rampage, so it was easier to get through. The dungeon's respawn mechanics were weird. The monsters would literally be born from a crack in the walls, and it could happen at any time. It could happen right in front of me if I was really unlucky and I could be attacked by a horde of monsters. As of now, they were probably respawning in different places.

I would kill whatever I could, and run from the others. If there was a group of two monsters, and I was able to approach unnoticed, I would take to assassinating the first one and killing the other through battle. The battles themselves were getting easier too as I gained experience. Goblins and Kobolds were stupid and their moves were almost always the same, with the same responses each time. You could tell what they were going to do. If I was faster, I could probably handle more goblins at once like Bell does. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

I'm pretty sure that the amount of magic stones I've collected so far is already more than what we got in the morning. If we make it out alive, we'll have a nice little nest egg to upgrade our stuff. Hell, I'm half considering being Bell's supporter, instead of getting stronger the normal way. We could totally become rich faster that way. But no, I'd just end up being a useless member of the Hestia family then.

I just realized something important. In the original story, Bell only went as far as the six floor because he wasn't fully equipped to go further like he is now. I hope he doesn't go any further than the sixth floor. As it is, I haven't had my falna updated yet and I'm probably going to reach my limit soon. Even the second floor is definitely too much for me. The monster spawn rate increases significantly as you go down, with stronger monsters.

I'm getting a lot better at this. Before I had Bell watching my back, so I was unconsciously being careless. I noticed a number of other small mistakes that I slowly corrected. Hopefully I could consider myself a novice instead of a newb soon.

Oh crap, 5 kobolds! I'm not that much better! Run!

As I reached the end of the first floor, I hesitated. I was already running more and killing less. It was taking a lot more time to catch up to Bell. I had no idea how to properly fight monsters yet. I had essentially reached my limit in the dungeon. If I couldn't even go through the first floor without any problems, going to the second floor was just foolish.

If I wanted to help Bell, I would have to risk it. Did Bell truly even need my help? Even if he does, how the hell am I supposed to handle a situation that Bell can't handle? I'll just become his dead weight.

Bell was in a berserk state at the moment and a love crazed maniac. Who knows if he'll take it too far in this world?

Damn, I'll go however far I can without dying and wait for him at that level. If I don't have the ability, I shouldn't try to take on more than I can. As it is, it is suicidal for me to be this far in. Part of me wonders if I have talent at crawling in the dungeon. Probably, thanks to insight, but I'm not strong enough to be cocky here.

Maybe I've wasted a lot of time collecting drops, but I believe Bell will survive. I mean, assuming that he doesn't go into the 7th or 8th floor. God, I hope that he doesn't go to those floors. I won't be able to be helpful at all then. The first floor is already a death trap for me.

I wandered around near the entrance. I didn't want to stay in one place because a still target is a dead target. Plus, while waiting around, I should practice fighting in the dungeon with any goblins I find. Likelihood is that I will be entering the dungeon alone from now on.

I didn't know how long it would take for Bell to come back…if he would come back…so I went around and continued to fight goblins. As I fought, I slowly got more skilled. My fights were slowly taking less and less time. I have to continue to fight in the dungeon for many more days, but it was important that I don't waste too much time. If you can't handle the first floor, you should just give up being a dungeon explorer.

Hours passed by and my bag was starting to get very full. We will have a tidy sum for a few days after I drop it all off at the guild. Now hopefully Bell comes back soon. It's really creepy being here all alone. It's the middle of the night, so there weren't any adventurers going in or out, otherwise I would have asked them for help. Not sure they would agree, but still.

Just when I was about to leave due to exhaustion (What? First day in the dungeon without any sort of back up or real training, my falna is at zero, and I'm constantly on high alert in the dungeon. I'm falling apart here), Bell came back. It looked like he had been mauled. His armor had gone through a severe beating and I didn't see any weapons on him. He must have gone berserk like he did in the story.

"Huh? Krishna? What are you doing here?!" I smacked him upside the head.

"Obviously I came into the dungeon after you."

"It's too dangerous! You shouldn't have done that!"

"So it's okay for you to go into the dungeon all half-assed, but it's not okay for me to follow up?"

"…" Bell was silent.

"Are you a complete idiot or something? You can't go into the dungeon like that! You could have died!"

Bell's head sunk down.

"That being said…I'm glad you're still alive. Just remember your family before you do something stupid like that again, alright? Our pretty little goddess would probably cry her head off."

His eyes widened for a moment. "I...understand."

"Come on. It's been a rough day." I patted him on the back. "Let's go home."

We walked back to our little dilapidated church. Bell opened the door-

"—Gyahhh!" The door had hit her smack in the face.

"G-Goddess? I-I'm sorry…"

Suffering from the agony of an unforeseen attack, Hestia looked up between her fingers at the figure standing in the doorway.

"Bell?!" He was looking at her with big eyes, almost begging for forgiveness. But his face was covered in cuts, red with blood and brown from mud. He looked utterly exhausted. His upper body was in rough shape and his armor was all banged up. The skin peeking out from under what was left of his clothes was crisscrossed with gashes and swollen.

Hestia went pale as she carefully approached him. "What happened to you? What's with all these injuries? Were you mugged?!"

"No, it's not that…" Bell was hesitant to talk about the stupid thing he just did.

"Then what the hell happened?"

"I went into the Dungeon…"

She forgot her anger for a moment and just stood in awe. "Are you crazy?! You went into the Dungeon? At night?!"

"… I'm sorry." Bell's head was sunk low.

"… Why would you even try this? You're not some thrill seeker, so what was going through your head?"

"…"

Hestia sighed, beside herself.

"Okay, okay. I won't ask you anything else. You're pretty stubborn, I can't win."

"I'm sorry…"

"I said it's okay, didn't I? For now, you need a shower. The bleeding has almost stopped, but your wounds are dirty. I'll treat them when you are done."

"… Thank you." Bell showed her a small smile. I half carried Bell toward the shower room. It was next to the bed behind an old, white wooden door. The door hung at a strange angle because one of the hinges was loose.

"Bell, sleep on the bed tonight, okay?"

"Are you sure…?"

"Of course! You're hurt, and I can't drag you all the way to the sofa, now can I? But I'll be sleeping in the same bed. I'm exhausted from going out and looking for you, you know? You wouldn't refuse, would you?"

"Yeah, sure. You must be tired, too. Let's get some sleep together." Bell completely missed her teasing tone and accepted the condition right away.

"… Eh?"

"Ahem." Hestia jumped like I had grabbed a cat's tail. "Goddess…"

"…! Wh-what's wrong?" She finally noticed me.

"Stop being creepy. He's too young for you, and you're a God. We are tired, and are going to have a nice discussion tomorrow morning." Hestia nodded her head. "Let him sleep in peace on the bed. You take the couch, and I'll take the floor."

"… I-I want to get strong." Bell mumbled in his exhaustion.

"!" Hestia craned her neck to look up at his face. Bell was looking straight forward, but not at anything in particular.

Hestia took a breath. "Yes…".

The next morning, after we woke up. Bell asked for a status update from all of the fighting. Apparently, he had reached all the way down to the end of the 6th floor before being too tired to continue.

 **Bell Cranell**

Level One

 **Basic Abilities**

Strength: H-120 → G-221

Defense: I-42 → H-101

Utility: H-139 → G-232

Agility: G-225 → F-313

Magic: I-0

 **Developmental Abilities** : N/A

 **Magic** : N/A

 **Skills** : Realis Phrase - Rapid Growth, Continued desire results in continued growth, Stronger desire results in stronger growth

It was just how it always was: Bell facedown on the bed without a shirt, the goddess sitting on his rear end, pricking her finger and dripping blood on his back. Hestia's hands stopped moving in an instant. She was clearly amazed and annoyed. Clearly, Realis Phase had increased his status rapidly.

"Goddess?" Bell was looking over his shoulder, trying to figure out why Hestia had stopped.

"Aah! Sorry! Sorry!" she said, trying to reassure him and returning to work. "Bell, is it okay if I just tell you your status today?"

"Um, sure. That's fine with me." Bell looked up over his shoulder as she told him how many points he had grown. But she left out the part about his skill, Realis Phrase. She wasn't keeping the information about his skill away from him out of spite. Sure, her jealousy of Ais was like 90 percent of her reasoning, but there were other circumstances that were keeping her lips sealed.

Gods and goddesses were here to have fun. When news of a "rare" or "original" skill reached their ears, they pursued it like kids in a candy store. Their sparkling eyes went wide open. A little bit of drool oozed out of their mouths. Some of the more foolish gods might even try to get the skill's possessor into his or her own Familia, ignoring the current blessing altogether. Just like playing a game.

Bell isn't good at lying. He'll tell anyone about his skill if they ask. News will travel fast. So, Hestia decided to keep it to herself. I wasn't going to tell him the truth either. Realis Phase only works if the feelings are real. Will knowing about the skill change anything? I don't know, and I don;t intend to find out. Now is the best time for him to push forward.

Bell's jaw dropped as Hestia told him what was written on his back—other than his skill, of course. Hestia put the finishing touches on the hieroglyphs. It was the one thing she could do to help him.

"So, yeah. You grew quite a lot this time. Do you know why?"

"No… not really… Ah!"

"Yes?"

"Well… the other night I went down to the lower sixth floor…"

"Huh? W-what? Are you crazy?! What were you thinking?"

"I-I'm sorry!"

Hestia jumped to her feet and stood over him, glaring. She released a torrent of scolding and reprimands onto Bell, still shirtless on the bed.

"The point is, I don't know exactly why, but you are growing at an alarming rate. I don't know how long this will last or how high you'll go. Let's call it a growth spurt.

"U-understood!"

"… This is just my opinion, but I think you have great potential. You have talent and great instincts as an adventurer… You will get stronger. And I want you to get even stronger than you are now."

"… Yes." Bell sat up and looked into Hestia's eyes.

Hestia crossed her arms and looked back down at him. She put all her heart into her next words. "… I want you to promise me that you won't try to do too much. I want you to swear that you won't repeat the other night."

"I—"

"Your will to get stronger is amazing, and I respect you for it. I will encourage you, support you, help you in any way I can… So." Her eyes glistened as tears started to flow. She pleaded with all of her being. "… Please don't leave me alone."

Her pleas had an immediate effect. Bell's shoulders sank as he looked upon her. His face was deep in thought, as though he was remembering another promise he had kept. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Stillness filled the air. For the two of them, it was a long silence.

"… I promise." Bell raised his head. His face looked pitiful, about to cry, but also happy and about to burst at the seams all at the same time. "I won't try too hard. I'll do my best to get stronger… But I will not leave you behind or make you worry. You will not be alone."

"I'm glad to hear that. I can relax now." She picked up his shirt from the floor and gave it to him. He said a quick "Thank you." She looked up at the ceiling as he changed.

Hestia's feet thumped on the warped flooring as she ran to a shelf in the kitchen. Most of the shelf was used for cookware, but she went to a box in the center and threw it open. Her hand flew around blindly as she fumbled for something hidden inside. Pulling the box down, she looked past the flyers and paperwork for her part-time job and found what she was looking for. She grabbed an invitation entitled GANESHA'S CELEBRATION OF THE GODS.

"Ah!" came out of her mouth as she quickly looked around. "Bell, I'm going to be out tonight. Maybe for a few days. That's okay?"

"Eh? Ah, I understand. Something for work?"

"Nope. I wasn't really interested at first, but some of my closest friends are going to a party. I'm thinking I'll go and say hi. It's been too long since I have seen everyone."

"Then by all means, go!" Bell said with a smile.

Hestia was almost out the door when I interrupted. "Hestia...aren't you forgetting something?" She froze and looked at me. "We need to have a talk. Sit down."

Hestia sat back down on the couch. "What's wrong?"

"Seriously, if I hadn't spoken up, you would have completely forgotten about me, wouldn't you? I know that I am new to the family, but this is the second time that you have ignored my existence."

"What? That's..." Hestia was shocked by what I said.

"Goddess!" Bell looked at me. "Krishna, aren't you being too harsh?"

"Not at all. Dungeon Diving is hard enough, but it's worse when your Goddess isn't updating your status."

"I know but-" Bell tried to defend Hestia, but I wasn't going to have any of it.

"Bell! Stay out of this. Just like I'm not interfering with your relationship with Hestia, don't interfere with my relationship with her." I was firm.

"I'm just trying to help here!"

"I understand, but sometimes things need to be said. I thought this was supposed to be a family, and we would treat each other like family. As it is, I don't see that being the case. I'm not here risking my life in the dungeon, just to be ignored. She only has two family members at this time. What happens when she gets more? I don't care if Bell is the favorite, but you need to treat the rest of us with basic respect too. Otherwise, no one will want to join the Hestia Family. We are poor, and the Goddess only pays attention to one member? Is that some kind of joke?"

"You're right." Hestia was solemn. "There are no benefits or comfort here except what we give each other. We don't have anything going for us here, except for companionship. I was grossly negligent with our newest member." She turned towards me and bowed deeply. "I'm really very sorry Krishna. I'm still learning and I'll strive to be the best Goddess that I can be. I hope that you can forgive me."

"It's alright. I hope it doesn't happen again. If we have this conversation again…"

"We won't." She promised.

"Good. With that out of the way, can I get my status updated, before you head out?"

"Yes, let's do it now." I took off my shirt and she performed the ritual on my back.

 **Krishna Khanna**

Level 1

 **Basic Abilities**

Strength I-0 → I-21

Endurance I-0 → I-20

Dexterity I-0 → I-35

Agility I-0 → I-29

Magic I-0 → I-0

 **Developmental Abilities:** Insight (I)

 **Magic** : N/A

 **Skills:** N/A

Once it seemed like she was finished, I heard Hestia make a little gasp. "You have a developmental ability already? How is that possible?"

I was unable to tell her the truth, so I faked ignorance. "I have magic? Is it good?"

Hestia was silent for a moment. "No, it's not magic. It's a developmental ability. They are characteristic that affect your growth. People normally only get them after they level up. I've never heard of anyone having one at level 1. It's called Insight. I've never heard of this one. I suppose it lets you see and understand things better?"

I shrugged. I couldn't tell her I already knew what it was. "I'm not sure how useful it'll be on a trip to the dungeon. I guess we won't really know until we try."

"I suppose. Regardless, you should keep your status as secret as possible." Hestia warned me.

I already knew why, but I still had to ask. "Why is that?"

"Because Gods and Goddesses get bored. So when something new or interesting comes up, they want to check it out, or take it for themselves, which causes problems for weaker families. A lot of the time, if a family isn't strong enough, they lose those members of their family."

"So what do we do?"

"Hide your status for as long as possible."

"Isn't there anything else we can do? I heard it's possible for God's to obscure the status on their children's backs so that no one else can read them. Can you do that?"

"Really? I've never heard of that before. I'll make sure to ask my friend about it. Hopefully, she can teach me how to do it."

I'm glad that I mentioned it, because she definitely needs to obscure Bell and my status. Otherwise we are looking at a dangerous level of attention. Although Bell will receive more attention, I will have a greater number of developmental skills, making it extremely dangerous for me too.

After Hestia left, we needed to plan out what we were going to do today.

"Hey...I have a favor to ask…" Bell looked at me nervously. "Do you think we can split up for the day? I need to go back and pay for the meal and apologize to Syr for my behavior last night."

"Don't worry about the bill. I made sure to settle it, before I followed you out. You're in the clear there, but you should apologize about your behavior to Syr. She's a nice girl. If it's just that, I can come with you."

"It's not just that…" He continued. "I had a huge level up yesterday, and I want to see how much stronger I've become in the dungeon. I can't do that on the first floor. So either you skip out on going to the dungeon...or you stay on the first floor alone like yesterday."

Wow, older Bell is a little bit more assertive. I didn't think he'd let me be in the dungeon alone. "I'll head to the dungeon on my own. Don't worry about it. The first floor isn't too bad, and with the status update, it shouldn't be a huge deal."

Until I could solo a group of five without difficulty on my own, I would stick to the first floor. Before going to lower levels, I also need to get some more knowledge from Eina, so I would have a heads up on things to look out for.

We separated at this time. While Bell went to the restaurant, I went to the guild. I had a large number of drops to sell to the guild. It was time to pay back the guild for the cheap weapons and armor.

I went up to the receptionist and dropped off all of the monster cores in my bag into the tray. There were more than sixty of them. "Your total comes out to be 6450 Valis." She scanned the money mark on my arm.

"Thanks. At this time, I would also like to set up an account in Hestia's name. Is that okay?"

She looked at me strangely. "Normally, a God opens their account on their own. I believe your goddess already has an account. Let me check...yes, it exists, but...it's completely empty."

"I see. Well, can you transfer 645 Valis into her account from mine? Also, I would like to pay off the 3000 Valis loan equipment that was given to me. Also, I would like to transfer another 2000 Valis into Bell Cranel's account." Ten percent to Hestia, 3000 Valis loan paid off, and twenty shards worth of Valis that Bell killed that I collected on his behalf on the first floor.

"No problem sir. Just give me a moment...all done. Your remaining balance in 805 Valis." Ah money disappears so fast. Life is hard all around.

"Thank you. Also, I would like to make an appointment with Eina Tulle for more lessons tomorrow. Can you please find out if that is okay with her?"

"Please wait for me here. I'll be right back." The receptionist heads in back and comes back about 5 minutes later. "Eina states that would be fine. She will leave the afternoon open for you, so you may come any time in the afternoon."

"Sounds good! Thanks!"

After that, I headed into the dungeon. Now that the Insight Skill was in my status, I'm sure it would have a much greater effect. The layout of the dungeon hadn't changed. I just had to search for prey and kill them with my knife. I can't wait until I can upgrade to a sword or different weapon. The knife's reach was just too short. On the other hand, it was a good weapon to train with, to avoid getting hit, or at least taking hits appropriately and blocking. The first floor was a good place to do so. It would have been even better if I had a companion to watch my back as we trained together on the first floor.

I soon came across a single goblin that I was able to kill pretty fast. If they were alone, I didn't ambush them. I fought them head on for more experience. My body felt light as a feather after updating my falna. I was faster, stronger, and just better over all. My Insight skill was also improving my fighting abilities. I felt like I was being enlightened as I fought. My moves got sharper, with less hesitation, and I was starting to dodge decreasing amounts of space. I was already ready to fight against two goblins at once.

I got the shit beaten out of me and had to run away. It was very embarrassing. If the goblins were using bladed weapons instead of clubs, I would be dead right now.

Fighting two beings at once was a lot different from fighting one on one. You had to pay attention to two things at once, both trying to kill you simultaneously. You had to be able to determine which moves to dodge and which ones that you had to block. You couldn't afford to lose sight of a single enemy. Which is precisely what happened to me.

That's why I'm still on the first floor. Until I'm an absolute tyrant on this floor, I should move on to the next floor.

After I recovered somewhat from my injuries, I tried again. And again. And again. And I got beaten up over and over again and had to flee every time. On the other hand, I was getting better. First, I was slowly learning positioning. Having a good position when your skills and armor aren't that great is a necessity. Then I started learning tactics. Sometimes offense was the best defense, and sometimes the opposite was true. You had to be able to switch on the fly at any given moment. Finally, I was learning how to take hits effectively. You had to plan to take certain hits at times to kill off your enemy. Taking a hit that wouldn't cause too much damage to kill one of your opponents was preferable. I was getting better at it over time too.

Damn, I took a hit to my knee! It hurts like crazy! I can't wait until I can start buying potions.

Pain is a great motivator, and I think my Insight Skill works more when it's there. As a result, I was learning much faster than normal, even without a teacher.

The Goblins were on the weaker end of the spectrum, with fairly obvious moves. They would shriek out loud and only followed their basic instincts. They were dumb, and I was still having problems fighting against them in groups. I had no idea how Bell managed so easily. He must have been really talented.

Once I was done for the day, I had decided. If Bell was going through the extremes of stats, I would go to the extreme in terms of skill. I would train my fighting skills to slowly decrease the gap of strength. I won't update my falna before conquering this level to push myself to be better. Once myinsight skill stopped activating to help me improve to reach a bottleneck, then I'll ask Hestia to update my status. It won't take long at this rate.

After I finally killed 50 monsters on the first floor, I left. It almost took the entire day. I was starving. I wonder how Bell and Hestia were doing? I'm guessing Bell is perfectly fine after testing out his new stats. I bet he went on a casual stroll down there at his current strength. Hope he didn't go too far down. He still needed to heal his injuries.

I think tonight is when Hestia went to the party to beg for Bell's knife. Hopefully, she doesn't just say yes to the debt without discussing it with us first. That's basically the reason I made that rule in the first place.

The city at night was a completely different place. You could see the giant protective wall that surrounds the city clearly under the moonlight. The voices of nature outside the wall are drowned out by the din of the city's nightlife.

Orario is one of the few cities that have existed since ancient times, even before the arrival of the gods. However, it is the only "labyrinth" city.

The wall forms a perfect circle, encasing the metropolis in stone. Relatively tall towers and buildings stick up just inside the edges of the wall. Shorter buildings are toward the center. This stone behemoth is lit by hundreds of magic stone lamps. It's as if a sea of stars came down from the sky to live in a stone castle.

One tower in the very center of Orario looks tall enough to pierce the clouds. The tallest tower in the city, its imposing shadow strikes awe into the citizenry. Visitors come from far and wide to see the tower and bask in its glory.

The tower is directly over the entrance to the Dungeon below. Known as "Babel," its main purpose is to be a "lid." With Babel at its core, the image of Orario has spread far and wide around the world.

More adventurers call Orario home than any other city or country. The Dungeon is where all of the ancestors of monsters scattered around the world were born. Many people refer to the Dungeon as one of the world's three great mysteries. A colossal "unknown" sleeps within the deepest part of the Dungeon. This "unknown" draws many fearless adventurers into its depths.

Of course, most of these adventurers are motivated by greed. A place that spawns infinite monsters and drop items provides an infinite source of wealth. For those adventurers on a quest for glory, slaying particularly violent and dangerous beasts is the fastest way to become immortalized as a hero in tales of adventure. Orario was given the name "Labyrinth City" on a whim by the gods who lived there. They thought it made the city sound more interesting. Soon, Orario became known far and wide. Adventurers had nothing to do with it.

The excitement of the "unknown," the lure of wealth, a chance to attain glory and above all notoriety, draws in more and more people every year. Among the newcomers, there may even be a few who come here merely for fun and a fated meeting. "The most passionate city in the world." That is what it's called.

I just took a moment to take it all in. I was both unlucky and blessed. Unlucky to have passed away in my old world, but so lucky to be able to experience this one. No matter what or where in the world you are born in, everyone eventually takes it for granted.

I thought about how it was so easy for me to start killing in this world. I thought that the first time I took a life or had to take the magic stone out of a monster, I would puke. That never happened. I think my Insight Skill made me accept that I had to do this much faster than a normal person.

I stopped by the receptionist in Babel to exchange my magic stones for Valis. "How do I know how much money I have at any moment?"

"You tap your mark and it will let you know in your mind. This is to keep your privacy intact." Holy crap! My Money Mark is connected to my mind?"

After I finished the transaction, I tested it out. A voice sounded out in my mind. "You currently possess 5305 Valis." Nice!

I grabbed some food to go and headed home. There, I met Bell who was already resting at home.

"Hey Krishna! How are you-urk!" He was taken aback. "Looks like you had quite the tie in the dungeon today..."

I understood. My appearance was probably a lot more beat up than expected. "I was on the first floor training. I'm trying to take two opponents on at a time. It's a lot harder than it looks. I took dozens of hits today and had to run away a lot. Improved a lot though. Should be able to take on three soon."

"I see...Sorry I wasn't there for you today. I bet it would have been a lot easier if I helped…"

"Don't worry about it." I reassured him. "Our abilities are too far apart. I can't go much deeper, and it's a waste of your talent and the potential income. The stones on the sixth floor probably give a lot more money. We can afford to waste time."

"Still...Family members are supposed to help each other…" Bell was feeling really conflicted at this time.

"I know, but you have a goal, right? I want to be selfish, but at the same time, I don't want to hold you back. I know my limits so I won't take on too much. On the other hand, you want to catch up to that Ais girl right?" He nodded. "You won't be able to do that on the first floor. I won't leave that floor either until I can bulldoze through that level without worry. I want you to go on ahead and keep on earning money. We're so poor, none of us are eating properly. And our Goddess looks like she is wearing old clothes. As the strongest in our family, you have to take charge."

He nodded resolutely. "I won't let you down."

Good thing Bell was kind of dumb. Just because he didn't have many problems surviving on the early floors, didn't mean it was the same for everyone else. It was easy to make him forget about me and focus on the whole family and Ais. As much as I wanted to keep Bell hidden and working with me, we were just too weak and poor. Freya, that hoe, is already going to be after Bell, so he needs to be strong enough to survive that encounter. It won't happen with me. I'm going to start looking for a partner to join our family and team up with me in the dungeon.

The next day, when we woke up, we found Hestia waiting for us. She looked really anxious. "Wah? Krishna? What happened to you? Nevermind...Bell, Krishna, we need to talk. Take a seat."

Bell and I sat down on the couch across from her. "I went to a party that was hosted by another God, Ganesha, last night. I wanted to see if I could meet one of my old friends to get some help for you guys. I wanted to get you both some weapons, so that it would be easier for you in the dungeon."

"Goddess…" Bell clearly felt guilty that his goddess had to ask others for help..

"I got her to agree. And the quality is the best out there. There's only one problem…" Hestia was fidgeting at this point.

"I see. And, that is...?" She needed to cut to the point.

"Our family will go in debt...for 200 million valis…"

"WHAT?" Damn Bell! You have to yell that loud? Are you trying to make me go deaf? "We definitely cannot take this deal! There's no way we will ever be able to pay off that loan!"

"But Bell! You are growing really fast! At this rate, you are going to have to replace all of your weapons and armor on a weekly level, if not sooner. This is...the only thing I can do for you guys in order to help you get stronger! This is our best option!"

"But Goddess, we can barely afford some food! How will we be able to ever afford to pay her back?"

She looked at me pleadingly. I sighed. "What did she promise you, and what do we have to do for them in the meanwhile?"

"She promised to make a weapon for Bell that would keep up with his growth. That kind of weapon is one of a kind. Even 200 million valis is considered cheap for that kind of weapon. In exchange, until our family can pay off the debt, I have to work at their main store for a thousand years or until we pay it off."

"A THOUSAND YEARS?" Bell shrieked comically while waving his arms and hands around.

"I see. Are you sure you want to do this for a single weapon? In the dungeon, anything can happen. That knife could end up getting lost. Or stolen. Do you think that it's worth the risk and a thousand years of working for your friend?"

She hesitated for a moment and then steadied her resolve. "I do."

"Alright then. I support you."

"KRISHNA?"

"Oi Bell, the comedy skit is over. It's fine. You need to get a new weapon anyways. This one should be good for a very long time. It'll save us a lot of money in the long run. If you want, you can just think of that debt as yours, and work hard to pay it off."

"But...what about you? I should be the only one that gets something. What about you?" Bell looked at Hestia pleadingly.

"Forget it Bell. I'm still a first floor rookie adventurer. It's only been 2 days. On the other hand, you reached the 6th floor in 2 weeks. I'm not skilled enough yet to use better stuff, so it is fine. It's not like we need to have a debt that is greater than 200 million valis either…"

Bell sighed. "Alright, I got it." He looked at the Goddess. "I will definitely get stronger and pay off that debt!"

"That's the spirit Bell! And Hestia, thank you for following the rules that we set down earlier. I really appreciate it."

"No, I should have done that from the beginning." Hestia shook her head. "You were right. I can't just take debts on my own. You guys are the ones going into the dungeon. I have to include you guys in major decisions like these."

"I'm glad you did." Our family felt a little closer after this discussion. "By the way, did you find out how to obscure our falna?"

"Hmm? Oh that. Yes, it's actually quite easy. Hephestatus told me how to do it."

"Great! Next time you update our falna, make sure to obscure it from now on. I wouldn't want anyone to see it if our armor broke, or anything like that."

"No problem! Let's do that all now! Take off your shirt Krishna."

"Actually…now isn't convenient..." I hesitated for a moment, but then decided to explain. "I'm not going to update my falna again until I am skilled enough to handle the first floor on my own. I feel like I can continue to improve my fighting skills first right now, and then update it when I'm done. That way, I don't depend on the falna in the long run. I'm going to continuously improve myself to be the best that I can be."

"Are you sure? What you are doing is more difficult than needed. It will probably take you a lot of time to do."

I nodded. "I'm sure. My insight showed me that this is the path that I should take."

Her eyes widened. "Insight is that powerful?"

"Yes. So make sure you obscure all of our statuses. I don't want us to be targeted by other people later."

"Got it. Come here Bell!" Bell came over and got his Falna updated. It was a significant boost for other people, but smaller than normal for Bell. Probably because he didn't push himself too hard yesterday.

Afterwards, Bell was going to go back to the sixth floor of the dungeon, while Hestia went back to Hephaestus to go get Bell's new knife. Now it was time for me to go and head back into the first floor of the dungeon. It was going to be another long day of beatings and learning from the pain.


End file.
